Labor Beat: We Are The People Who Will Save Our Schools {LB640}
This video begins with Professor of Education Pauline Lipman (University of Illinois-Chicago) briefly recapping the plans hatched a decade ago in Chicago to replace public schools with private charter schools.
Then Chicago Public Schools head Arne Duncan implemented those plans (Renaissance 2010) so obediently that President Obama picked him to do the same thing to every school system in the country.
So Chicago’s growing uprising against these deepening attacks against public education has national importance.
Here is a battalion of voices from the communities and the teachers union, all exposing the constantly changing, Kafkaesque rules for evaluating school turn-arounds and closings. The counter-attack from the working people in the city is energized and spreading, and is on a collision course with the 1% who want to take away their children’s futures.
Includes comments from Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, teachers and parents from targeted school communities.
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Labor Beat: Shutdown at The CPS Board Meeting {LB639}
Two weeks prior to the Dec. 14, 2011 School Board meeting, the Chicago Public Schools announced a long list of schools it wanted to either close or ’turn-around’ (fire everybody and re-hire from scratch).
But community organizations affected and the Chicago Teachers Union have shown over the years that these schemes -- leading often to increasing private charter schools -- impair education, harm the students and communities, and expose the machinations of property developers with political influence.
Throughout the years of these school actions, the CPS has carried out a charade of pretending to consider the input of the school communities affected, while all the while making the real decisions beforehand behind closed doors.
The CPS Board of Education is appointed by the Mayor, not elected, and is infested with bankers, millionaires, a billionaire and property developer, and corporation heads.
On the eve of this Board meeting, hundreds of protesters rallied in front of the Board of Ed. offices in Chicago’s Loop, then took to sleeping bags in a cold rain all night to secure places at the Board meeting the next morning. When Board President David Vitale began the meeting, it wasn’t going to be business as usual, as a multiple mic check stopped everything, forcing the Board to beat a retreat into closed session.
Scenes of Dec. 13 vigil/rally downtown, overnight campers, Dec. 14 teachers union press conference in building lobby, and then upstairs to the school board meeting with its dramatic shutdown.
Speakers include: Jesse Shakey, V.P. Chicago Teachers Union; Marcellus Barnes, International V.P., Trustee ATU 241; Karen Lewis, President, CTU; Jitu Brown, Dyett Local School Council; and teachers, food services workers, parents.
Labor Beat: Stop The Hit List! {LB638}
In early December, 2011 Chicago Public Schools announced its "hit list" -- schools it is targeting for closings or turning-around.
Recently, the Chicago Education Facilities Task Force created guidelines, where the CPS followed none before, on how targeting of schools had to be first discussed with those communities affected.
Gearing up for this next phase, the Chicago Teachers Union held a teach-in about the hit list on Dec. 3, 2011 at MLK Prep High School. This meeting and rally marked a new level of militancy underlined by Jitu Brown’s (KOCO) statement: "This will not stop until we stop it!"
Speech excerpts from: Kristine Mayle (CTU Financial Secretary); Angela Surnuy (Marconi school); Prof. Pauline Lipman (Univ. of Illinois-Chicago); Jitu Brown (Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization).
There are also interviews with teachers and parents from Casals and Stagg schools, which are on the hit list.
Video includes Valencia Rias-Winstead from Designs for Change (and a member of the Educational Facilities Task Force which legally formalized requirements mandating timely public input on CPS school actions). Valencia Rias-Winstead talks with CTU President Karen Lewis about what happens next in the public discussion period and how Chicago Public Schools will manoeuvre between now and the final decisions early in 2012. They also discuss the growing movement for an elected school board instead of the undemocratic process now in place.
Newsvideo #111209. Stop The Hit List! 12/3/2011. {LB}
[See the description for the Labor Beat series show.]
Mins 26:35
Labor Beat: Taking of LaSalle St. Bridge: Labor/Politics/Occupy / Rahm's Psych Ward {LB637}
- Taking of LaSalle St. Bridge: Labor/Politics/Occupy.
As part of national actions on Nov. 17, 2011 several thousand mostly labor activists marched from the Thompson Center (State of Illinois Building) to briefly take over LaSalle St. Bridge. The police arrested 46 people who had sat down on the bridge.
Afterwards, the marchers went over to the Occupy Chicago site at Jackson and LaSalle, then the combined forces went on to other locations in the Loop.
First using in the planning stages the slogan "Jobs Not Cuts", the event organizers added: "Resist Austerity, Reclaim the Economy, Recreate Our Democracy!" as Medicare and Social Security became targeted by Congress and the White House.
This was also during the week when the Chicago City Council and the Mayor voted for huge cuts and layoffs in city services [see 2nd segment "Rahm’s Psych Ward"].
Marking the growing intersection of unions with the Occupy movement, the day represented interesting processes going on within the growing national movement against the dictatorship of the 1%. In an extended interview enhanced by choice street videography, AFSCME 2858 President Steve Edwards assists in sorting out these developments.
- Rahm’s Psych Ward.
On Nov. 15, 2011 Chicago activists opposing the proposed closing of 6 of the city’s 12 mental health clinics went to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office and occupied it for 10 hours into the night.
This was on the eve of the City Council’s vote on Rahm’s new budget, which not only threatened cutting in half the number of clinics, but also included cuts in school libraries, number of fire dispatchers, and other cuts.
The next day the City Council (all Democrats, including the Mayor) approved the cuts in a 50-0 vote. Alderman Edward Burk boasted that the vote sent a powerful message to the labor movement. During the vote Mayor Emanuel warned that it was "only the beginning". Meanwhile, Mayor Emanuel had advocated 50% tax breaks for the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange.
Newsvideo #111130. Chicago Solidarity Rally for UK Public Workers, 11/30/2011. {LB}
Nov. 30, 2011 -- At 6 different cities in the U.S., National Nurses United organized rallies today in support of public workers in the UK in their general strike.
Targeted were the UK Embassy in D.C., and the Consulates General in 5 other cities, including Chicago. At the Chicago rally on Michigan Ave., attended by some 100 union supporters, were representatives from NNU, United Steel Workers, Chicago Teachers Union, Amalgamated Transit Union, UNITE HERE, and others.
Interviews and speeches from Jean Ross (one of the 3 Presidents of the NNU); Steve Kramer (USW 9777); Robert Reiter, Jr. (Sec. Treas. of Chicago Federation of Labor); Jackson Potter (Staff Coordinator, Chicago Teachers Union); Carlos Acevedo (Assistant to the Trustee, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241).
Labor Beat: Occupy Chicago at Grant Park / Keep Public Services in Public Hands {LB636}
- Occupy Chicago at Grant Park.
After two weeks of occupying Chicago’s financial district at Jackson & LaSalle, the decision was made to march to Grant Park and occupy it.
Meanwhile, Chicago’s unions began to formally become involved in the occupy movement, and joined this action, which took place on Oct. 22, 2011.
Thousands of students, workers and community activists began at the Federal Reserve Bank and Chicago Board of Trade and walked east through the Loop about a half mile to Grant Park. The Park was the venue for Obama’s election night celebration rally in 2008, but tonight no one was celebrating Obama’s obedience to Wall Street. Scenes and energies from the march, and interviews focusing on union members and officials who were there.
At the Park, National Nurses United set up a first aid tent, but after 2 am later that night some 130 protesters were arrested, including two NNU leaders, and the police tore down their first aid tent.
Thousands of protesters make their way from Jackson & LaSalle to Grant Park
Scene at Grant Park occupation, waking up the ghost of Chicago ’68
At 2 am cops arrest occupiers at Grant Park, tearing down Nurses’ first aid tent
- Keep Public Services in Public Hands.
On Saturday, October 29, 2011 the Community Labor Alliance for Public Services held a rally outside the Morton Civic Center, where the City Council of Evanston, Illinois meets. They were protesting the cuts in and privatization of the city’s public services.
Evanston is a major suburb just north of Chicago. Cuts have been sharpest in Parks and Forestry, targeting staff. This is negatively affecting quality of life for city residents, including the conditions along the lake front and also snow plowing.
"It’s going to result in a diminution of services to the city," Henry Bayer, Executive Director of AFSCME Council 31, points out. "If they go through with this plan the work that will be done in the Forestry Dept. by the private contractor doesn’t cover all the services currently performed by the city."
Watch this segment now.Kevin Johnson, President, AFSCME 8191, states: "We hope to stop any privatizing, any more layoffs. It is the end to quality services that Evanston residents have depended upon."
Additional speakers are: Florence Estes, Staff Rep, AFSCME Council 31; Judy Wittner, Community Labor Alliance for Public Services; Charles Hogan, Retired Evanston Public Service Employee.
Length - 10:23
Evanston, Illinois protest against cuts in public services
Refuse collection truck owned by Groot, a private company contracted by the City of Evanston Photos: Gary Brooks / Labor Beat
Newsvideo #111122. Rahm's Psych Ward, 11/22/2011. {LB}
On Nov. 15, 2011 Chicago activists opposing the proposed closing of 6 of the city’s 12 mental health clinics went to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office and occupied it for 10 hours into the night.
This was on the eve of the City Council’s vote on Rahm’s new budget, which not only threatened cutting in half the number of clinics, but also included cuts in school libraries, number of fire dispatchers, and other cuts.
he next day the City Council (all Democrats, including the Mayor) approved the cuts in a 50-0 vote. Alderman Edward Burk boasted that the vote sent a powerful message to the labor movement. During the vote Mayor Emanuel warned that it was "only the beginning"
Meanwhile, Mayor Emanuel had advocated 50% tax breaks for the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange.
Newsvideo #111111. Occupy Chicago at Grant Park, 10/22/2011. {LB}
[See the description for the Labor Beat series show.]
Mins 15:23
Labor Beat: Haiti: The Struggle Continues {LB635}
The 2010 earthquake in Haiti is an ongoing disaster that was not simply the result of geology, but of the deliberate political and economic exploitation of this Caribbean island nation. Through dramatic images, speeches, interviews and poetry this video gives a stark picture of a people struggling against the forces of imperialism as well as of nature. Some felt that the 2010 earthquake was in some sense a coup against the state, prior to which the 2004 political coup had already undermined the capability of the state to respond.
And then there came the international response, not entirely benign. "Why in Haiti is there an occupation of the MINUSTAH (UN), something like 6 years of occupation?" asks Didier Dominique, Haitian labor union organizer.
"There were a series of protests in 2009 to see that the minimum wage was increased from about $3/day to $5/day," notes Toussaint Losier (Rising in Solidarity with Haiti). "The UN forces, backing up the police, played a significant role of suppressing these protests, firing on crowds, first with rubber bullets, then with live ammunition." Losier also goes on to relate the current Occupy Wall Street protests to the situation in in Haiti, where the "elite don’t pay taxes at all."
Labor Beat: HWC Community Roundtable on Reinvention {LB633}
The controversy surrounding the city-wide so-called Reinvention plan for City Colleges of Chicago continues and grows.
On Sept. 15, 2011 a meeting was planned to take place at Harold Washington College (part of the CCC system), sponsored by the AFT Local 1600 chapter at HWC. The administration at HWC blocked this by claiming that, since the student’s families and community were invited, it was not a sanctioned CCC event, and demanded a $500 vendor fee. The meeting was moved to another location in the Loop -- the Chicago Temple.
The meeting that took place yielded a rich discussion and clarification of the concerns facing faculty, staff, and students that the Reinvention scheme will end the school’s traditions as a portal to higher education for low-income and minority students, dismantle faculty and staff rights and income, and deepen cuts in the name of the business model. Meeting coverage has been edited to 27 min. for Labor Beat.
Speaking were: Floyd Bednarz, President of CCC Labor Organizing Committee at HWC; Eric Taylor, HWC Data Processing Lab Manager, AFT 1600; Delores Withers, President of AFT 1708; Rosie Banks, President of HWC Faculty Council; Amy Rosenquist, Adjunct Faculty, CCCLOC NEA (Adjunct Faculty Union); Hector Reyes, Vice Chair of HWC Chapter, AFT 1600. Also included in this show are some excerpts of the audience discussion that followed.Hctor Reyes, Vice Chair of HWC Chapter of AFT 1600.
Labor Beat: Chicago: War Protest March to Obama's 2012 HQ / Hey You, Billionaire, Pay Your Fair Share {LB634}
- Chicago: War Protest March to Obama’s 2012 HQ October 8, 2011.
On the 10th anniversary of the U.S. Invasion of Afghanistan a coalition of anti-war groups (www.ChicagoMassAction.org) held a protest to address the truckload of grievances, domestic and global, resulting from the Bush, and now Obama, war-a-palooza.
The eventual destination of the march, which started out at Congress and Grant Park (scene of 1968 police riots) was the 2012 campaign headquarters for President Obama.
Features the main speech by Bruce Dixon (Black Agenda Report, (www.blackagendareport.com
We follow the march as it heads up State Street, then over to Obama HQ at the Prudential Building. Dixon reminds the assembly that there will be protest actions organized in Chicago in May when the G8 and NATO (invited by Mayor Emanuel) will be coming to Chicago.
- Hey You Billionaire, Pay Your Fair Share.
On Oct. 10, 2011, a combination of five feeder marches gathered in Chicago’s Loop to protest the Futures & Options and American Mortgage Bankers Association expos.
The feeders represented constituencies for jobs, housing, and public schools. They generated a combined march of 7,000, and finally ended up at the Art Institute where the banksters were having a reception dinner.
Here are selected scenes and comments from a big spectrum of interests affected by the dictatorship of capital being forced upon the workers of Chicago.
Includes the march for homes/housing starting from the Hyatt, the Occupy Chicago location where the teachers union gathered, and the final convergence at the Art Institute. Street interviews. Also, interview/speech by Karen Lewis, President of Chicago Teachers Union.
News Video #111015. Chicago: War Protest March to Obama's 2012 HQ, 10/08/2011. {LB}
[See the description for the Labor Beat series show.]
Mins 14:53
News Video #111014. Hey You, Billionaire, Pay Your Fair Share, 10/10/2011. {LB}
On Oct. 10, 2011, a combination of five feeder marches gathered in Chicago’s Loop to protest the Futures & Options and American Mortgage Bankers Association expos.
The feeders represented constituencies for jobs, housing, and public schools. They generated a combined march of 7,000, and finally ended up at the Art Institute where the banksters were having a reception dinner.
Here are selected scenes and comments from a big spectrum of interests affected by the dictatorship of capital being forced upon the workers of Chicago.
Includes the march for homes/housing starting from the Hyatt, the Occupy Chicago location where the teachers union gathered, and the final convergence at the Art Institute. Street interviews. Also, interview/speech by Karen Lewis, President of Chicago Teachers Union.
Newsvideo #110930. Community roundtable on City Colleges 'Reinvention' plan, 9/15/2011. {LB}
[See the description for the Labor Beat series show.]
Mins 27
Labor Beat: IVAW - A Step for Tomorrow {LB631}
In March 2011 two Japanese videographers came to Chicago to make a documentary about Iraq Veterans Against the War.
A main focus of their piece was Aaron Hughes, an internationally traveled veteran of the Iraq war who is dedicated to reaching the public with the anti-war message, and in the process using his own artistic talents to carry that out.
While the videographers were here, the historic Madison labor protest took place. The IVAW went up to the capitol rotunda there to join in support, and the documentarists from Mabui Cine-Coop in Osaka went up there with them. Here is the documentary they made -- English version, and shortened to fit Labor Beat’s 28-min length.
Newsvideo #110907? The People's Putt Putt, 9/2011. {LB}
Using a creative mix of street theater, art, and political satire, the social justice group Stand Up Chicago! In September 2011 created a mini-golf-themed event to point out the misdeeds of corporations in this Great Recession.
By engaging passersby in a game of mini-golf, or "putt-putt," they served up a humorous, creative, fun and educational approach to the greed of companies like Bank of America and Cigna.
By pointing out that there are different sets of rules (the "rules for the rich," and the "rules for the rest of us"), Stand Up Chicago! illustrated how hard working individuals and families in the Windy City are struggling to get by, while the rich hoard money for shareholders instead of job creation.
The People’s Putt-Putt was a creative and unconventional protest against corporate welfare and the greed of the rich.
Labor Beat: Chicago Teachers, Wisconsin Labor Cookout / {LB632}
Aug. 31, 2011 - Wisconsin labor leaders are invited down to a South Side backyard cookout by the Chicago Teachers Union, where they compare notes on how to stop attacks on public workers unions in Wisconsin and Chicago.
Excerpts of speeches from CTU President Karen Lewis; Joe Conway, Jr., President, Madison Firefighters Union; Ed Cobb, President, Wisconsin Building Trades; Peggy Coyne, President, Madison, WI Teachers Union; and legendary South Side steelworker Ed Sadlowski, Jr.
Newsvideo #110904. Chicago Teachers, Wisconsin Labor Cookout, 8/31/2011. {LB}
[See the description for the Labor Beat Series show.]
Mins 12:28
Labor Beat: The CTA Strike of 1968 {LB630}
We can’t find any documentary about this on the Internet, so this may be the only one in existence about the Chicago Transit Authority (wildcat) strike of 1968.
There is no wonder that official Chicago history has somehow buried this story in a deep crypt, but we have brought it back into the daylight of 2011, along with rare archival stills and film footage, and exclusive interviews with now retired CTA drivers who played key roles.
Here is the 60s Civil Rights movement intersecting with the class struggle in a big North American city, engaging a major public sector employer. Adding to this mix was the fact that many of the drivers were returned Viet Nam veterans with combat experience and not inclined to back down from a fight.
Now back in Chicago, the drivers confronted racism not only in the bus company but in the company union (warning: coarse language in video). "You could stand up in that union hall -- McNamara was the President -- at Van Buren and Ashland. Before you opened your mouth - whack! - you’re out of order," recalls Rodgers Harmon, ret. 36 years CTA bus driver.
"We didn’t have any real representation in the union...the strike was not so much against the CTA, it was against the union with no representation," recalls Claude Brown, ret. CTA Bus Driver.
The wildcat strike was on, and the drivers learned how to develop community support. Standish E. Willis, then CTA driver and today a criminal defense attorney, remembers: "We started drawing upon the leadership in the broader community. So we had Operation PUSH (Breadbasket at the time). We would reach out to celebrities...I remember Gale Sayers...Dick Gregory...I went personally and brought Muhammad Ali to the rally. But the significant thing is that we reached out to the community by developing car pools similar to what happened in Montgomery at the beginning of the Civil Rights movement, and we would take our personal cars and drive them up and down the main thoroughfares in the areas we had closed down -- the West Side and the South Side -- picking up people, getting them to the next stop. What that allowed us to do is to explain what the strike was about...and to get support in the broader African-American community."
Newsvideo #110901. CCC Clerical Workers Want Fair Contract Now. 9/1/2011. {LB} –n–
Chicago, Sept. 1, 2011. For more than a year Federation of College Clerical and Technical Employees Local 1708 has been bargaining for a contract, which expired in June 2010.
But City Colleges of Chicago has been pushing a pay freeze and wants to increase health insurance costs. The administration has also hit the local with layoffs and job reassignments.
A spirited protest took place at CCC Hq at 226 W. Jackson. Scenes and interviews.
Labor Beat TV Series {LB000}
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Labor Express Radio Series {LB} –n–
Listen to the latest Labor Express Radio shows anytime worldwide at www.LaborExpress.ORG!
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Labor Beat: Craft Against Corporate Welfare / Ifti Nasim / IVAW at Madison {LB629}
For the June 14, 2011 march to protest a big meeting of corporate executives at Chicago’s Hyatt Regency Hotel, a group of banner makers created Craft Against Corporate Welfare.
As part of the general Stand Up! Chicago mobilization, this merry band of students, teachers and activists put together an impressive selection of giant puppets, signs, and huge banners to be used in the protest.
We visit with them as they discuss their mission, spray paint and staple gun over three days, and pull off some impressive deployments during the scheduled event. More info:
Newsvideo #110806 Craft Against Corporate Welfare, 6/2011, Chicago. {LB}
[See description for the Labor Beat series show.]
Mins 19:29
Labor Beat: Haiti, The First Black Republic. {LB628}
Here is a brief history of Haiti that gives the essential background to understanding its major contribution to the fight against slavery and oppression in the Western Hemisphere.
Historic footage combined with extensive commentary by Aline Lauture (Haitian Congress to Fortify Haiti) and Lionel Jean-Baptiste (Haitian Congress to Fortify Haiti). Looks at the emergence of Haiti as a nation through the successful rebellion of African slaves there (the first of its kind in the West), establishing the first Black republic of former slaves.
This also presented a threat to the system of slavery elsewhere, which lead to various international attempts to economically strangle the new republic.
The video shows the relation of the Haitian revolt to early 19th century U.S. history, the French connection with the Louisiana Purchase, and activities of Haitian revolutionary ex-slaves in U.S. southern states prior to the Civil War.
Discussion covers the Duvalier era, neo-liberal policies affecting Haiti, Clinton’s promoting privatization there and IMF policies that today cast their shadow over the island nation.
News Video #110722, Haiti, The First Black Republic. {LB}
[See description for the Labor Beat series show.]
Mins 27:38
Labor Beat: Give It Back! Protest / Updates on City Colleges of Chicago Protests {LB627}
-1- The Executive Summit of CEOs and CFOs at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago on June 14, 2011 was the target of a broad coalition of community and labor organizations, put together by Stand Up! Chicago.
Several thousand protesters successfully pulled off 3 coordinated feeder marches (housing, jobs, education) that transformed the hub of corporate Chicago at Michigan and Wacker into protest central. We begin with the small band of movement artists (teachers, students and activists) as they plan the visuals and create the huge puppets (Kings of Corporate Welfare) which became the visual rallying points of the Give It Back march and rally.
We show the process of how the big march came together and how working people were able to appropriate Chicago’s showplace of big business and convert it into a movement theatrical backdrop. The CEOs at the Hyatt went on with their meeting, and a city-wide movement gained confidence in its organizing skills. Rod Wilson of the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization observed: "This is definitely the beginning, not the end, not the culminating, but the beginning."
-2- Updates on City Colleges of Chicago protests. Save City Colleges of Chicago protest and statements at a City Colleges of Chicago Board meeting.
News Video #110626: Give It Back! Protest of Corporate Summit, 6/14/2011. {LB}
[See the description for the Labor Beat series show.]
Mins 18:34
Labor Beat: Housekeepers Speak Out Against Sexual Harassment / Updates City Colleges / Updates City Colleges / Anne Feeney Songs {LB626}
-1- As part of a nation-wide response to reported sexual assaults on hotel workers such as the alleged attack by former IMF head Strauss-Kahn on a New York hotel housekeeper, on 6/2/11 Chicago UNITE HERE Local 1 held a press conference and speak-out on the steps of the historic Water Tower on Michigan Ave.
Several Chicago hotel housekeepers related personal stories about sexual harassment they experienced.
"These women are union members," UNITE HERE VP Jo Marie Agriesti explained. "The women in New York who stood up to this were union members of a strong New York local. They have the ability to stand up and fight this without the threat of loosing their jobs."
-2- Updates City Colleges
-3- Updates City Colleges
-4- Anne Feeney Songs, June 23.
News Video #110610. Housekeepers Speak Out Against Sexual Harassment, 6/2/2011. {LB}
As part of a nation-wide response to reported sexual assaults on hotel workers such as the alleged attack by former IMF head Strauss-Kahn on a New York hotel housekeeper, on 6/2/11 Chicago UNITE HERE Local 1 held a press conference and speak-out on the steps of the historic Water Tower on Michigan Ave.
Several Chicago hotel housekeepers related personal stories about sexual harassment they experienced.
"These women are union members," UNITE HERE VP Jo Marie Agriesti explained. "The women in New York who stood up to this were union members of a strong New York local. They have the ability to stand up and fight this without the threat of loosing their jobs."
News Video #110527: 'Save City Colleges' Is Refused Meeting Space at Malcolm X College {LB}
Part of the "reinvention" plan for Chicago City Colleges is to remove the name of Malcolm X from one of the campuses, and paint over the its wall mural image of Huey P. Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s.
But these are just symbolic representations of much deeper attacks against public eduction in Chicago at the college level.
The Save City Colleges coalition, made up of student groups, faculty members, union locals, and community leaders, arrived at Malcolm X on May 26, 2011 expecting to have a hearing with Chairman of the Board of Trustees Martin Cabrera and officials from City Hall, as was previously agreed to. But they found out that it was cancelled. And to add to the insult, Malcolm X security (the irony of it all!) kicked the coalition out of the building.
The coalition has stated: "The grassroots organizers point to the dangerously reduced transparency of decision-making for the largest consolidated body of higher education in the state and claim that all of the above decisions had been made by administrators lacking in education experience and credentials and without good-faith consultations with employees, students or grassroots community representatives."
Labor Beat: May Day Weekend 2011 / Free Bahrain -- Chicago Rally / Stop CCC New District Policies - Press Conference {LB624}
1. May Day Weekend
Since May 1, 2011 fell on a Sunday, May Day activities in Chicago spread across the whole weekend. We cover here several of those events: a reenactment of the Haymarket Square tragedy at the location it took place (Randolph and Desplaines) back in 1886; a labor protest at a Wal-Mart store near the cemetery of the Haymarket monument, which then marches to the cemetery; selected scenes from rededication of Haymarket Martyrs monument at Forest Home cemetery in Chicago suburb; a march of rank-and-file workers from Union Park in Chicago to a predominantly Mexican neighborhood (Pilsen) on the South Side.
2. Free Bahrain - Chicago Rally
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Chicago’s Daley Plaza on April 29, 2011 to demand an end to the oppression of the people of Bahrain "at the hands of the Bahraini military and the security forces provided by other states of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)." The action was heavily attended by representatives from Chicago area Muslim communities..
3. Stop CCC New District Policies - Press Conference
Excerpts from May 6, 2011 press conference in front of Mayor’s office opposing CCC administration’s so-called "reinvention" of programs. Speakers: Jokari Miller, Student at Malcom X and District Student Government Association Council Parliamentarian; Vivian Moreno, Student at Wright College and member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); Theodore Fabriek, Student at Kennedy-King College and District President of the Student Government Association.
News Video #110516: Rahm's Innauguration Might Destroy Our Education, 5/16/2011. {LB}
Not exactly part of Rahm Emanuel’s coronation ceremony, protesters marched up Michigan Ave. on Monday, May 16, 2011 to oppose the growing corporate suqeeze on public education, now headed up in Chicago by the new Mayor.
Chicago City Colleges students, faculty, community and labor leaders declared "We say NO to the ’reinvention’ of the City Colleges of Chicago to suit LaSalle Street. We say NO to the privatization of our public schools and colleges, the dismantling of public sector unions, worker layoffs, and cuts to programs and services for students and communities."
News Video #110513: May Day Weekend 2011 {LB}
See the description within subsequent Labor Beat show.
Mins 14:00
Labor Beat: We Are One -- Illinois / NEIU Rally for a Contract {LB623}
Segment 1: We Are One - Illinois
As part of the national ’We Are One’ actions in early April, 2011, a number of rallies took place around Illinois, culminating in Chicago on April 9.
We begin first at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on the banks of the Chicago River as teacher unions teamed up with the hotel workers. They shared a common foe: the super-rich Pritzkers, who own the Hyatt and also play the same role in Illinois as the Koch family plays in Wisconsin, bankrolling legislators to attack public sector unions.
Afterwards, the action moved down to Daley Plaza where some 10,000 unionists heard speeches comparing what is happening in Illinois to Wisconsin.
Includes scenes from downstate rallies in Decatur and Springfield. Speakers and interviews: George Schmidt, Substancenews.net; Jackson Potter, CTU staff coordinator; Sandra Miranda, Hyatt housekeeper; Dan Montgomery, President of Ill. Fed. of Teachers; Ken Swanson, President of Ill. Education Association; Bill Lucy, President of Coalition of Black Trade Unionists; Jen Johnson, Chicago public school teacher; Mahlon Mitchell, President of Wis. Fire Fighters Union.
Segment 2: NEIU Rally for a Contract
Although having bargained in good faith for nearly 3 years with the Northeastern Illinois University administration, the faculty still have not been given a contract.
On April 7, 2011 a sizable number of students and faculty at the largely commuter campus on Chicago’s north side took part in a spirited rally to get the Board to bargain fairly. The action was also part of the wave of pro-labor demonstrations around the U.S. Immediately following the rally they marched to the Board meeting, but the great majority of the academic community was not allowed in.
Includes speeches and interviews from: NEIU faculty members Zachary Schiffman, Nancy Matthews, Pam Padgginski, and Prof. Therese Schuepfer, United Professionals of Illinois Chapter President at NEIU; also speeches by James Thindwa, labor/community activist; and Jorge Mujica, Iimmigrant rights leader. Includes scenes inside and outside the NEIU Board meeting.
News Video #110507. Stop Chicago City Colleges New District Policies, 5/6/2011. {LB}
On Friday, May 6, 2011 a press conference was held in front of the Mayor’s office at Chicago’s City Hall. Speaking at the event were student organization representatives, teachers, heads of religious organizations, community activists, and labor groups who were opposed to "policy decisions by the City Colleges administration designed to swell the ranks of pinstripe patronage workers including politically-connected contractors at the expense of frontline services for students", their statement read.
These top-down decisions from the CCC administration are part of a national onslaught against public education and the extinguishing of democratic control by communities affected by these decisions.
Speaking here in this video report are: Rev. Paul Jakes, President, Christian Council on Urban Affairs; Jessi Choe, Teacher, Wright College; Vivian Moreno, Student at Wright College and member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); Jokari Miller, Student at Malcom X and District Student Government Association Council Parliamentarian; Michael Stenson, Pastor at General Assembly Church of Englewood; Jamila Onyeali, South Side community activist; and Theodore Fabriek, Student at Kennedy-King College and District President of the Student Government Association.
News Video #110429. Free Bahrain - Chicago Rally, 4/29/2011. {LB}
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Chicago’s Daley Plaza on April 29, 2011 to demand an end to the oppression of the people of Bahrain "at the hands of the Bahraini military and the security forces provided by other states of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)."
The action was heavily attended by representatives from Chicago area Muslim communities. "As Americans and Muslims, we expect our government to make clear to its allies that democracy and the civil rights of their citizens must be upheld", their statement read.
"The United States gives [the Bahraini monarchy] political cover and legitimacy," said Sulayman Hassan, Religious Director of the Bait Ul Ilm Mosque in Streamwood, IL. And "it’s our technology and our money that’s being used to round up human rights activists and average citizens who are protesting for their rights."
Labor Beat: Wisconsin and After {LB621}
A overview of the recent weeks in the battle for public sector workers in Wisconsin, and touching upon the national ramifications.
Key issues are raised, through interviews and documentary footage: concessions have been pushed and agreed to by the Democrats and top union leaderships, setting workers up for the current Republican attacks.
"On the national level, the Democrats have bought into the idea that workers should pay for the crisis," points out AFSCME 2858 Pres. Steve Edwards. But the money is there, if we taxed the rich and ended war spending. Includes scenes of the return of the 14 Democrats, the capitol rotunda occupation, mass marches, Iraq Veterans Against the War, more.
Connects state budget crises with the wars and Wall Street, and looks at the tactics of the recall election and a general strike.
Interviews and speeches from: Steve Edwards, Pres. of AFSCME 2858 and member of Socialist Alternative; Andy Heidt, Pres. of AFSCME Local 1871 and member of wisconsinwave.org; Jesse Sharkey, V.P. Chicago Teachers Union (for i.d. purposes only); Jan Rodolfo, National Outreach Coordinator, National Nurses United; Scott Kimbell, Iraq Veterans Against the War; Austin Thompson, labor organizer - Madison, WI.
Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat is a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer Labor Beat. For info: mail@laborbeat.org, www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. For other Labor Beat videos, visit Google Video, YouTube, or blip.tv and search "Labor Beat".
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News Video #110408: NEIU Rally for a Contract, 4/7/2011. {LB}
Although having bargained in good faith for nearly 3 years with the Northeastern Illinois University administration, the faculty still have not been given a contract.
On April 7, 2011 a sizable number of students and faculty at the largely commuter campus on Chicago’s north side took part in a spirited rally to get the Board to bargain fairly. The action was also part of the wave of pro-labor demonstrations around the U.S.
Immediately following the rally they marched to the Board meeting, but the great majority of the academic community was not allowed in.
Includes speeches and interviews from: NEIU faculty members Zachary Schiffman, Nancy Matthews, Pam Bagdzinski, and Prof. Therese Schuepfer, United Professionals of Illinois Chapter President at NEIU; also speeches by James Thindwa, labor/community activist; and Jorge Mujica, Iimmigrant rights leader.
Includes scenes inside and outside the NEIU Board meeting.
Labor Beat: No Concessions - Madison / I'm Here from Wisconsin / IVAW at Wisconsin / Illinois Labor Supports Wisconsin {LB620}
A 4-segment show.
-1- No Concessions Emergency Meeting (at Madison Labor Temple). On Sunday, Feb. 27, 2011 an emergency meeting of labor leaders and community activists took place at the Madison, WI Labor Temple to consider ways stop the attacks on workers and unions by placing the responsibility where it belongs, on Wall Street and the corporations. Includes Jim Cavanaugh, President of South Central Federation of Labor. The SCFL endorsed (it is not empowered to call) a General Strike. Watch at http://www.facebook.com/pages/LABOR-BEAT/167503422257.
-2- I’m Here from Wisconsin. In a piece of political theater, a speaker announces that the workers and students in the capitol rotunda are taking up a collection in a bucket to raise $140 million for the Governor’s budget, so he won’t have to go through all this ruinous legislation. Bagpipe march into capitol rotunda, and a contingent from Los Angeles shows up!
-3- IVAW at Madison: National Guard, Support the Workers! An historic moment in the anti-war movement in the U.S. On Feb. 26, 2011, at the center of a public workers uprising in Mid-America, Iraq Veterans Against the War drive home a key point: The wars abroad, and the money spent on them, have a direct relationship to the wars against American workers. Watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMnARsTdzPA.
-4- Illinois Labor Supports Wisconsin. From the Illinois side: Chicago area unionists travel up to a big solidarity rally in Madison, and talk about their experiences. Also, down in Springfield hundreds of union members rally at the state capital to show support for Wisconsin public workers, and quote some Abe Lincoln.
Labor Beat: Evanston/Skokie Communities Support Unions' Rights to Bargain {LB622}
On March 15, 2011, Evanston and Skokie, suburbs on the northern boundary of Chicago, held a rally in support of union rights to collectively bargain in good faith.
Activists from these two communities took part in a national action called Defend the Dream, promoted by MoveOn.org to stop the cuts looming in Congress.
The speakers present were also motivated by the historic fight in Wisconsin to defend bargaining rights there. Union and community activists speaking were: Rachel Rosner (MoveOn.org Political Action); Jean Luft (Pres., District 65 Educators Council); Jason Hayes (member, Evanston Firefighters Local 742); Flo Estes (Representative, AFSCME Council 31); Laura Paz (Comité Anti Militarización - CAMI); Dickelle Fonda (Coalition for Peace and Justice). These speakers from Skokie and Evanston reflected the views of many communities throughout the U.S.
Regarding the layoffs of public workers, Jason Hays noted "When people work, the economy grows." Speaking to the basic rights to have unions, Flo Estes reminded the crowd: "The United Nations statement on Human Rights mark strong labor unions as a requirement of a democratic society." And Laura Paz, on the subject of funding, said: "We spend billions to kill people in other countries, so I don’t think union members need to take cutbacks when we’re spending that kind of money when the top 1% don’t pay fair taxes."
News Video #110317: Evanston/Skokie Communities Support Unions' Rights to Bargain, 3/15/2011. {LB}
[See the description for the Labor Beat series show.]
Mins 28est
News Video #110313: Tractorcade Wisconi-stan, 3/12/2011. {LB}
On Saturday, March 12, 2011, before the enormous record-breaking union protest later that day, Wisconsin farmers organized a ’Tractorcade’ around the state Capitol building in Madison.
This was an important addition to the ongoing protest against Wis. Governor Walker’s attempts to completely destroy public workers unions in the state. The Tractorcade showed that other sectors of the population in Wisconsin (and the Midwest), such as small-business, rural family farmers and farm cooperatives, are in open political motion now in solidarity with organized labor.
They are also angry about how the new state budget will affect a state-run health insurance program (BadgerCare) which 11,000 family farm members depend on. A sign on a tractor: "Want to balance the budget? End corporate welfare."
News Video #110306: IVAW at Madison: National Guard, Support the Workers!, 2/26/2011. {LB}
Here is an historic moment in the anti-war movement in the U.S. On Feb. 26, 2011, at the center of a public workers uprising in Mid-America, Iraq Veterans Against the War drive home a key point: The wars abroad have a direct relationship to the wars against American workers.
"Wisconsin taxpayers pay 2.7 billion dollars to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan" one IVAW member tells the packed crowd of protesters inside the Capitol rotunda at Madison. The IVAW calls for an end to the wars and using money spent there on the U.S. domestic economy instead.
The veterans tell the pro-labor crowd that they too are public workers. The IVAW asks the Wisconsin National Guard, which may be called upon by Gov. Walker to break any possible public workers strikes: "We call upon [you] to refuse to mobilize on workers fighting for their rights." The IVAW put posters proclaiming this around the building.
Labor Beat: Chicago Rally for The People of Egypt / Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists / Iraq Protests the Occupation {LB618}
-1- Chicago Rally for The People of Egypt
The protests in Egypt were only a couple days old as over 1,000 protesters squeezed onto the wide Michigan Avenue sidewalk on January 29, 2011, in front of Chicago’s Egyptian consulate to show their support for the revolt of the Egyptian people against the dictator Mubarak. .
-2- Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists
On January 25, 2011 outside Chicago’s Federal Building in the Loop several hundred supporters gathered to protest the FBI subpoenas of anti-war activist, and the Grand Jury maneuvers to intimidate legitimate protest.
Joining them were representatives of two large and important unions in Chicago and Illinois: SEIU Local 73 (Christine Boardman, President), and the Chicago Teachers Union (Jesse Sharkey, Vice President), the largest union in Illinois. .
-3- Iraq Protests the Occupation
Excerpts from Sana TV (Iraq) coverage showing opposition to the U.S. occupation.
After a mosque bombing an Iraqi observes: "I am sure these people [who planted the bomb in the mosque]...have been planted among us by the occupation that is playing the main role in the chaos in Iraq."
Sana TV is produced by Iraq Freedom Congress in Iraq, a progressive, non-sectarian, pro-labor group. Sana TV’s offices were recently wrecked by the militia. Length 11:07. .
News Video #110301: No Concessions Emergency Meeting (at Madison Labor Temple) {LB}
On Sunday, Feb. 27, 2011 an emergency meeting of labor leaders and community activists took place at the Madison, WI Labor Temple to consider ways to stop the attacks on workers and unions by placing the responsibility where it belongs, on Wall Street and the corporations.
Highlights of speeches by: Jim Cavanaugh, President, South Central Federation of Labor*; Jesse Sharkey, Vice President, Chicago Teachers Union*; John Nichols, Nation Magazine*; John Matthews, Madison Teachers Incorporated*; J. Eric Cobb, Executive Director, Building Trades Council of South Central Wisconsin*; Jan Rodolfo, RN, National Outreach Coordinator, National Nurses United. (For more info: 510-757-5925 or JRodolfo@NationalNursesUnited.org). (*Organizations for identification purposes only.)
Labor Beat TV Series {LB}
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Labor Beat and the Labor Express Radio series are produced by the Committee for Labor Access. Mail@laborbeat.org. 37 S. Ashland Blvd., Chicago IL 60607. Phone (312) 226-3330, or fax (773) 561-0908. Web sites: www.laborbeat.org.
Labor Beat: Battle Front Wisconsin {LB619}
The struggle that has captured the imagination of union members across the nation.
The newest Labor Beat episode "Battle Front Wisconsin" covers the ongoing fightback in Madison. There, a right-wing state government is attempting to gut public sector unions by stripping them of collective bargaining rights, membership, dues collection, and a host of other attacks on what it means to be in a union.
Teachers, municipal workers, students, and their supporters (even police and firefighters) have rallied constantly to demand "Kill The Bill."
Labor Beat producer Andrew Friend spoke with union activists, University of Wisconsin students, and those showing their solidarity in what is shaping up to be the opening battle in an interstate war for workers’ rights. Hi-def.
News Video #110225: Battle Front Wisconsin {LB}
[See the description for the Labor Beat series show.]
Mins 28
News Video #110224 I'm Here from Wisconsin {LB}
Brief scenes from the Wisconsin capitol.
In a piece of political theater, a speaker announces that the workers and students in the capitol rotunda are taking up a collection in a bucket to raise $140 million for the Governor’s budget, so he won’t have to go through all this ruinous legislation.
Also, the arrival of a contingent of about 160 unionists from Los Angeles. More.
News Video #110216: Iraq Protests the Occupation: Sana TV excerpts {LB} –n–
Two short excerpts from Sana TV (Iraq) coverage showing opposition to the U.S. occupation.
First, we see the results of a mosque bombing and comments of observers and relatives of victims: "I am sure these people [who planted the bomb in the mosque]...have been planted among us by the occupation that is playing the main role in the chaos in Iraq." [Some of the audio is choppy in this section. A running sub-title translation is provided.]
Then we go to an un-permitted demonstration in Liberty Square in Baghdad on the 7th anniversary of the occupation.
Sana TV is produced by Iraq Freedom Congress in Iraq, a progressive, non-sectarian, pro-labor group. Sana TV has frequently been the target of the corrupt authorities but continues to produce reports. English version produced by Labor Beat.
Labor Beat: Direct Action {LB617}
Video of the special Labor Express Radio show in Dec. 2010 that examined direct action as an effective tactic for unions and other social movements. The live-streamed video webcast featured a panel of four guests who have already won victories using direct action.
Toussaint Losier of the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign - The campaign has successfully kept people in their homes by blocking home evictions with mass numbers of supporters.
Mark Meinster of UE - The UE’s factory occupation of Republic Windows and Doors, not only won the workers their legally mandated severance, but eventually lead to the re-opening of the factory.
Michael Kozlowicz of the IWW - The IWW has throughout it history promoted direct action as a primary way for workers to win demands in the work place. Everything from refusals to work, to walk outs, to work to rule, to free speech fights, to sabotage have been a part IWW history. And the organization continues to use these tactics to great effect from Jimmy Johns, to Starbucks, to warehouse workers on the East Coast. Now the Chicago IWW is organizing a direct action case work workers center - the Lucy Parsons Workers Center.
Claudio Gaete of the Whittier Parents Committee - By occupying the field house on the grounds of Whittier Elementary School for over 40 days, parents were able prevent the buildings demolition and win their demand that the facility be used as a library for the children and a community center for the parents.
Discussion explores successful uses of direct action and how direct action is an important strategy for social movements.
To find out how to get a DVD of this show, contact:lduncan@igc.org.
News Video #110129: Chicago Rally for People of Egypt {LB}
1,000 protesters squeezed onto the wide Michigan Avenue sidewalk today (Jan. 29, 2011) in front of Chicago’s Egyptian consulate to show their support for the revolt of the Egyptian people against the dictator Mubarak.
Scenes, signs, and excerpts of speeches from representatives of Chicago’s Egyptian, Middle Eastern, and activist communities.
Speakers declared that Egyptian President Mubarak has to go, and that the U.S. shares responsibility for supporting his regime over the years.
News Video #110127: Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists {LB}
On January 25, 2011 outside Chicago’s Federal Building in the Loop several hundred supporters gathered to protest the FBI subpoenas of anti-war activist, and Grand Jury maneuvers to intimidate legitimate protest.
Joining them were representatives of two large and important unions in Chicago and Illinois: SEIU Local 73 (Christine Boardman, President), and the Chicago Teachers Union (Jesse Sharkey, Vice President), the largest union in Illinois.
VP Sharkey told the big, enthusiastic crowd that he had just heard that the CTU Delegates body had voted to condemn this FBI ’fishing expedition’ against union members.
The demonstration was part of a large nationwide day of protest against grand jury subpoening of anti-war and Palestinian rights activists in the Midwest.
For more info: http://www.stopfbi.net/.
Labor Beat: Chicago Teachers Union Hosts Mayoral Candidate Forum {LB616}
The Dec. 16, 2010 Mayor Candidates Forum sponsored by the Chicago Teachers Union and several other unions is the subject of this show.
We hear samplings of the questions for and answers by the candidates present (Gery Chico, Carol Moseley Braun, Miguel Del Valle, William "Doc" Walls, James Meeks).
Provided also is commentary by Sean Noonan, a college teacher and member of AFT 1600. Noonan suggests that the time has come for labor to abandon the lesser of two evils strategy in looking to the future.
The unusual conditions in this city election cycle are the result of the unexpected exit of Mayor Daley and the expanding battlefield over funding for the public sector.
Notably absent from the event was putative front-runner Rahm Emanuel. John Kugler, reporter for substancenews.net, notes that on the very day of this debate hearings began in Aurora to build up steam for the union-busting "Performance Counts" legislation in Springfield. That effort was publicly endorsed by the Democratic Party’s crown prince Rahm Emanuel, but the push for this legislation failed to get sponsorship in the legislature, and is dead for now. It’s an early defeat for Rahm.
News Video #110120: Chicago Teachers Union Hosts Mayoral Candidate Forum {LB}
[Description at Labor Beat show listing.]
Mins 25:22
Labor Beat: Whittier Parents Force Meeting with Huberman {LB615}
The struggle for "La Casita" in Chicago is not over.
After weeks of Whittier School parents occupying the school’s field house that was threatened with demolition, Chicago Public Schools outgoing CEO Ron Huberman told their Alderman that all he required from them was a letter specifying what they needed, and he would sign it.
On October 13, 2010 the Whittier parents had that letter delivered to Huberman. Their goal was to have the field house (La Casita) kept part of Whittier school and refurbished into a needed library.
Berta Chacon, one of the parents, tells protesters: "He received it [the letter] and we’re waiting for an answer. Since last night, we are holding a vigil, because it is not possible that they play us with just lies. We have been waiting 34 days and he says that this is new. This has been actually going on for 7 yearsŠ We have been there [the occupied school house] 34 days and nights. We don’t want any more lies and here we will stay until they sign the letter."
Carolina Gaete of Blocks Together, says "We are asking Mayor Daley to do his job and to demand that Huberman fulfills his job to sign what was promised by our elected officials October 13."
Gaete draws the lessons in the broader context: "Local schools don’t get the resources that are needed, therefore don’t meet standards and are scrutinized through the process of either being turned around, closed, or charterized. ... You are not giving our schools equal access and equal resources, yet you are measuring the standards all the same but everybody’s not at the same playing field."
At the completion of this video (Jan. 2, 2011) the letter has still not been signed.
Scenes and interviews from demonstrations in front of Chicago Public Schools, City Hall, Mayor Daley’s office, and "La Casita". Produced for Labor Beat by David Vance.
Labor Beat: Chicago Hotel Workers {LB614}
One Day Strike at Palmer House Hilton, plus two other segments featuring Chicago’s hotel workers.
-1- One Day Strike at Palmer House Hilton UNITE HERE Local 1 hotel workers hold a one-day strike at Chicago’s landmark Palmer House Hilton. They talk about big workload increases and layoffs the Hilton company is trying to force the workers to accept, this while working without a contract for 15 months.
-2- Mop March for Chicago Hyatt Hotel Housekeepers To dramatize excessive workloads, housekeepers and labor community supporters march with mops and buckets up to the entrance of the Hyatt to explain that they were there to help the housekeepers do their work. They were not allowed in, but they made their point.
-3- The 2002 Averted Strike of Chicago Hotel Workers [excerpt] Excerpts from our Labor Beat documentary "The 7,000". The huge march down Michigan Avenue, the countdown to the strike deadline, the last minute negotiations to avert the strike, the vote to ratify the contract. A testament to the power of the union and the rank-and-file.
News Video #110102: Whittier School Parents Force Meeting with CEO Huberman {LB}
See the description for the Labor Beat show.
Mins 25:34
Labor Beat: The Right to Remain Active {LB613}
Activists who were targeted by the Sept. 24 raids are now being re-subpoenaed to try to force them to give testimony against others as the FBI deepens its McCarthy-like attacks on peace activists in the U.S.
Here are speeches at the People’s Thanksgiving Dinner on Dec. 4, 2010 and the Emergency Rally to protest FBI harassment of solidarity activists at the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago on Dec. 6, 2010.
Includes: James Fennerty, National Lawyers Guild - Chicago Chapter; Matt Brandon, Sec-Treasurer, SEIU Local 73; Hatem Abudayyeh, Executive Director, Arab American Action Network; Lee Gargagliano, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network - Chicago; Stephanie Weiner, activist; Tracy Molm, Palestine solidarity activist who has been called back to the Grand Jury; Joe Iosbaker, activist; Kirstin Szremski, American Muslims for Palestine Director of Media and Communications; Sarah Smith, activist; Stan Smith, father of activist targeted by raids.
Labor Express: What Can Direct Action Do For You? {LB} –n–
A special Labor Express Radio show in Dec. 2010 examined direct action as an effective tactic for unions and other social movements. The live-streamed video webcast featured a panel of four guests who have already won victories using direct action.
Toussaint Losier of the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign - The campaign has successfully kept people in their homes by blocking home evictions with mass numbers of supporters.
Mark Meinster of UE - The UE’s factory occupation of Republic Windows and Doors, not only won the workers their legally mandated severance, but eventually lead to the re-opening of the factory.
Michael Kozlowicz of the IWW - The IWW has throughout it history promoted direct action as a primary way for workers to win demands in the work place. Everything from refusals to work, to walk outs, to work to rule, to free speech fights, to sabotage have been a part IWW history. And the organization continues to use these tactics to great effect from Jimmy Johns, to Starbucks, to warehouse workers on the East Coast. Now the Chicago IWW is organizing a direct action case work workers center - the Lucy Parsons Workers Center.
Claudio Gaete of the Whittier Parents Committee - By occupying the field house on the grounds of Whittier Elementary School for over 40 days, parents were able prevent the buildings demolition and win their demand that the facility be used as a library for the children and a community center for the parents.
Discussion explores successful uses of direct action and how direct action is an important strategy for social movements.
To find out how to get a DVD of this show, contact:lduncan@igc.org.
News Video #101211: Tracy Molm describes FBI raid {LB}
Tracy Molm, a Minneapolis-based Palestine solidarity activist, describes what happened during the recent FBI raid on her apartment in September, its aftermath, and her solidarity work for Palestinians.
Her subpoena has now been reactivated by the grand jury in this assault on First Amendment rights of peace activists.
Her presentation was made at the Dec. 4, 2010 People’s Thanksgiving Dinner in Chicago. For more information on the solidarity campaign: www.stopfbi.net.
Labor Beat: A More Effective Imperial CEO {LB612}
Bruce Dixon, who runs a blog on the Black Agenda Report (blackagendareport.com), argues that the current Democrat in the White House has been able to foist upon the U.S. public policies that a Republican president wouldn’t have gotten away with.
Obama has proven to be a "more effective Imperial CEO" than his predecessor.
Since his inauguration, much of the anti-war movement has demobilized itself to avoid criticizing him, while Middle East colonial adventures deepen, including an expansion of the Afghanistan war.
Domestically, the White House has junked major campaign promises to fight for the Employee Free Choice Act or to pass real health care reform, yet he has bailed out Wall Street at the expense of Main Street, and thrown the UAW to the wolves in the GM intervention. All this while our national culture of prison incarceration keeps growing.
Dixon reminds us of similar failures to deliver from President Clinton in the 1990s. The Democrats, he points out, "are people proof and reform proof". Dixon calls for an independent, permanent political party to break from the Democrats. The presentation is intercut with scenes from the Oct. 16, 2010 anti-war march in Chicago and struggles over the years for health care reform, employee free choice legislation, defending the public sector, etc.
News Video #101126: A More Effective Imperial CEO {LB}
See the description for the Labor Beat show.
Mins 24:42
News Video #101123: Mop March for Chicago Hyatt Hotel Housekeepers, 11/18/2010. {LB}
Hyatt housekeepers have been given excessive work loads in cleaning extra rooms to the extent that they are experiencing numerous work injuries. In addition, their exhaustion at the end of the work day is seriously eroding their family lives.
On Nov. 18, 2010 a protest was held at the Hyatt Regency Chicago to draw attention to this. Supporting the housekeepers (members of UNITE HERE Local 1) were some 50 labor and community activists, including CACOSH (Chicago Area Committee on Occupational Safety and Health) Director Emanuel Blackwell who declared "work should not hurt."
To dramatize the excessive work load of the housekeepers, the protesters marched with mops and buckets up to the entrance of the Hyatt to explain that they were there to help the housekeepers do their work. They were not allowed in.
One housekeeper brought some fitted bed sheets as examples for the management to consider instead of the non-fitted sheets the workers are forced to use, causing extra backbreaking work when making beds. When she left the sample sheets at the hotel, management had the police write her a ticket for littering.
Labor Beat: Pullman Porters: Ordinary Men That Changed A Nation {LB611} –n–
An historical perspective on the Pullman rail car porters and their influence upon U.S. social history -- with archival footage and presentations.
Lyn Hughes (Founder and Director of the A Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum) describes how the Pullman workers "made an indelible mark on labor".
Delving into the 1894 Pullman strike, Professor Daniel Cornfield (Sociology Dept., Vanderbilt University) points out that the workers were in a unique position to shut down rail traffic throughout the nation. He also analyzes the new inclusive unionism model that they introduced into the American labor scene.
We also go to the annual wreath-throwing ritual at the Clarence Darrow Bridge near the Chicago Museum of Natural History in March of 2009 and the comments made at that occasion. Darrow was a lawyer for the railroads who was converted to the cause of the workers and rose to national prominence because of that.
Labor Beat: No More Tiers Rally, To End Two-Tier & Stand in Solidarity {LB610} –n–
- No More Tiers Rally, To End Two-Tier & Stand in Solidarity.
In the wake of illegal negotiations by the UAW International without the consent of local memberships in Indianapolis, IN and Lake Orion, MI, union autoworkers from throughout the Midwest rallied outside "Solidarity House" (UAW Headquarters) in Detroit, MI on October 16, 2010.
Produced by Robert Mabbitt. For more info: http://soldiersofsolidarity.com. For DVD information contact: public.dee@gmail.com.
- Also a short segment Chicago Hilton Workers Strike. (The 3-day strike on 10/16/10 ).
Labor Beat: La Casita Visits the Alderman / Karen Lewis at Daley Plaza Rally for Public Education / GEMNYC Protests 'Waiting for Superman' {LB609}
- 1. La Casita Visits the Alderman
In the month since Whittier Public School parents occupied a field house in their school lot, much has happened. Chicago Public Schools head Ron Huberman, who pushed to have the field house (now dubbed "La Casita") demolished to make way for a charter school development, has let it be know he would be leaving his post when Daley exits as Mayor early next year.
Following mounting frustrations with fictitious "support" from their local alderman, this video documents a march from the occupied field house (turned into a library by the parents and community) to the offices of Alderman Danny Solis.
Following their protest, La Casita leaders have received signals that Solis has changed his tune. On the national battlefield to defend the public sector, this important struggle in an Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago shows the working class beginning to take control in a clearly concrete way. 13:20.
- 2. Karen Lewis at Daley Plaza Rally for Public Education
On Sept. 21, 2010 a spirited rally of some 500 teachers, community organizations and students was held in Daley Plaza, just across the street from Chicago’s City Hall. The rally protested the ongoing plundering of public education being led by City Hall, CPS head Ron Huberman, and corporate Chicago which gives them their orders.
"Our communities are not for sale," Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis told the crowd. "You cannot destroy communities one by one through neglect, through under-funding, under-resourcing and then punish those very communities and say ’you’re not living up to standards’. No, you’re [pointing to City Hall] not living up to standards!"
- 3. GEMNYC Protests Waiting for Superman
In New York, the Grassroots Education Movement (GEMNYC) responds to "Waiting For Superman". They did this action outside a movie theatre near Lincoln Center when the film opened in New York City on September 24th, 2010. An independent video by Darren Marelli.
News Video #101017: Chicago Hilton Workers Strike {LB}
On Oct. 16, 2010, Chicago Hilton hotel workers, members of UNITE HERE Local 1, went on a 3 day strike to protest working without a contract for 13 months.
They called it a "Taxpayers Strike" to draw attention to the fact that Hilton received $180 million in bailout funds (from taxpayers like the hotel workers) while trying to impoverish and overwork their employees.
Similar actions are taking place at Hilton hotels in San Francisco and Honolulu. Scenes and interviews.
Labor Beat: Raid on A Nation {LB608}
"We must remind the government that its job is not to limit the things we say, but to protect our fundamental right to say them." - Ahmed Rehab (CAIR)
Immediately following the Friday, Sept. 24, 2010 FBI raids on Chicago anti-war activists, throughout the city, and throughout the US, the solidarity network sprung up. Labor Beat documents here these historic first days of a new campaign to defend the 1st Amendment.
Presented are scenes and speeches from the Sept. 25 press conference and the first-of-its-kind Monday, Sept. 27 big protest in front of the FBI headquarters in Chicago. Included also is Labor Beat archival footage of the mass protest/march at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, at which Joe Iosbaker speaks against what was then George Bush’s wars.
Excerpts of speeches and comments by James Fennerty (National Lawyers Guild - Chicago Chapter), Stepanie Weiner and Joe Iosbaker (political activists whose home was raided), Melinda Powers (Attorney for Stephanie and Joe), Doug Michel (Students for a Democratic Society), Kristin Szremski (Director of Media and Communications, American Muslims for Palestine), Ahmed Rehab (Council on American-Islamic Relations), Stan Willis (National Conference of Black Lawyers), Andy Thayer (Gay Liberation Network), John Beacham (ANSWER Coalition - Chicago).
Japanese version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q3eT1k0TwE.
News Video #100928: Raid on A Nation {LB}
(See the description for the Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 27:10
News Video #100925: Chicago Press Conference Protests FBI Raids {LB}
On Saturday, Sept. 25, 2010 a press conference was held to protest the FBI raids the day before on Chicago-area anti-war activists.
In an attempt to intimidate and silence activists critical of U.S. foreign policy and militarism. Joe Iosbaker and his activist wife Stephanie Weiner had their home invaded by the FBI and searched for 12 hours. The FBI even put in ’evidence’ bags drawings that their children made.
This video includes comments by their attorney Melinda Power. The space at the West Town Community Law Office was packed with about 75 supporters from numerous community and anti-war groups who made enthusiastic chants of solidarity at the end of the press conference.
Iosbaker vowed that this McCarthy era-type government intimidation will not deter the anti-war movement from building an upcoming Midwest regional march on Oct. 16.
News Video #100829: Adjunct Faculty Protest at East-West University {LB606}
85% of the faculty at East-West University, located on Chicago’s Michigan Ave., are adjunct (not full time). Last spring, when word leaked to the administration that they were organizing a union with the Illinois Education Association, they were fired.
On the same week of a demonstration called by the United Adjunct Faculty Association at the school, the NLRB filed an Unfair Labor Practice against East-West University (EWU) for violating the federally-protected rights of adjunct faculty. Scenes and interviews from the UAFA organized protest on August 26, 2010.
Labor Beat: They've Taken Everything That Isn't Nailed Down {LB605}
- 1 - The protest in front of the Chicago Board of Education on July 28, 2010.
Leading the rally, Jessey Sharkey, the new Vice President of the Chicago Teachers Union, said it this way: "In Chicago, school closings, layoffs, program cuts, all these things are called permissible subjects of bargaining. The Board of Education thinks it can cut those things at will, without anybody’s permission. They have taken every area that they are allowed to take. They’ve come into our house at night, into the house of public schools, and they’ve taken everything that isn’t nailed down."
- 2 - Interviews with some members of the CTU’s new rank-and-file bargaining committee talking about their experiences participating in the negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union and the School Board’s lawyers, and their recommendation back to the union’s house of delegates to reject the School Board’s offer. Interviewed are Norine Gutekanst, Susanne Dunn, Al Ramirez.
- 3 - As President Obama spoke inside Chicago’s Cultural Center on Michigan Ave. on Aug. 5, 2010, outside a group of Chicago Public Schools teachers and other public workers protested the Race to the Top (RTT) policies that Obama (and his Secretary of Education Arne Duncan) is pushing nationally. Demo was organized by the Caucus of Rank And File Educators.
Labor Beat: Corporate Media and the Pillage of Chicago Public Education {LB604}
In the weeks following the election of Karen Lewis as the new Chicago Teachers Union President, we see how Chicago’s corporate public relations world attempts to spin the story of new union militancy in the face of layoffs and 35 students per classroom.
Exclusive press conference scenes and analysis. Interview with Carol Caref, new CTU Region A Vice President, as we watch her and Karen Lewis spar with reporters.
George Schmidt, Editor of substancenews.net, provides valuable insights into the media scene in Chicago.
Also footage and commentary by substancenews.net reporter John Kugler who describes his question that shut down a press conference put on by Mayor Daley and the head of Chicago Public Schools Ron Huberman.
News Video #100806: Hey Barack, Race to the Top Is a Crock. {LB}
As President Obama spoke inside Chicago’s Cultural Center on Michigan Ave. on Aug. 5, 2010, a group of Chicago Public Schools teachers and other public workers protested outside.
They were demonstrating against the Race to the Top (RTT) policies that Obama (and his Secretary of Education Arne Duncan) is pushing nationally in dismantling public education and attacking teachers unions. The demo was organized by the Caucus of Rank And File Educators (CORE, coreteachers.org) and also attended by CTA workers.
Labor Beat: Arizona and Immigrant Rights {LB603}
"Society as a whole has been subjected to a system of oppression where corporate profits are the number one rule and that is something that we have to keep in mind as we struggle for the rights of immigrants. In the end, it’s not just about the rights of immigrants, it’s about the right to a decent way of life for every person...." -- Oscar Chacón.
"We were not responsible for so many factories closing down here..... If anybody has stolen jobs from people in the United States, it has been the corporations, with of course the help of the U.S. Government that even helped them [companies] close down here and establish factories overseas." -- Jorge Mujica
"[The new Arizona Law says] if a school teacher takes her children on a school trip, and if one of her children is undocumented -- they get pulled over because they make an illegal left turn -- she can then be subject to prison, to be arrested, for that one undocumented child in her school bus." -- Isaac Medrano
Leaders and activists in the Mexican and Latino community discuss the Arizona "virus" of racism and oppression directed against immigrants in the U.S., and how working people can oppose these attacks.
Panelists are: Jorge Mujica, March 10 Committee, immigrant rights leader; Oscar Chacón, Executive Director, National Alliance of Latin American & Caribbean Communities; Isaac Medrano. Indiana Director, Reform Immigration for America.
Recorded from the June 25, 2010 live show to the Internet and cable.
News Video #100803: Corporate Media and the Pillage of Chicago Public Education {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
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News Video #100716: May Day 2010 and the New Front in the Fight For Immigrant Rights {LB602}
In the final week of April, 2010, Arizona’s governor signed into law SB1070, legalizing the police racial profiling of Latinos in that state in the name of finding "illegals." In similar events, Arizona banned Latino and African-American studies from publicly-funded schools.
Days later on May 1, International Workers Rights Day, thousands turned out in Chicago to demand immigration reform and to speak out against Arizona’s oppressive anti-immigrant law. In this episode of LABOR BEAT, the annual May Day march is showcased, including interviews with:
- Laid-off CTA workers demanding their jobs back and a return of public service... - Veteran immigrant rights activists decrying the travesty in Arizona... - Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney expressing the need for solidarity with labor everywhere... - and an extensive conversation with Mario Cardenas of the Immigrant Youth Justice League, a group made up of documented and undocumented young people rallying around the issue of deportations. Despite his own harrowing encounter with the forces of "la migra," Mario maintains a political analysis, courage, and grace that immigrant haters will never possess.
Produced by Andrew Friend for Labor Beat
News Video #100625: Arizona and Immigrant Rights {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 28:39
Labor Beat: Ron Huberman, Show Us the Money! / Plus 3 Short Videos. {LB600}
- 1. The Marilyn Stewart administration has now been voted out of office, and the next job to be done is to kick out Chicago Public Schools’ CEO Ron Huberman, and get some honest and accurate information about where school money is and how it’s spent. [See the full description of NewsVideo #100613.] 17 mins.
- 2. Chicago’s Save Our Schools Rally. May 25, 2010 a huge Save Our Schools rally in Chicago’s Loop. mins.
- 3. Mass Rally in Okinawa Against U.S. Bases. A mass rally in Okinawa against U.S. bases took place on April 25, 2010. Produced by Iraq Peace TV in Japan. mins.
- 4. Zenroren May Day in Chicago. Japanese Labor Federation Zenroren dedicates plaque at Chicago’s Haymarket Square monument. [See the description of NewsVideo #100501.] 2.5 mins.
News Video #100622: Evanston Fire Fighters Say No To Layoffs, 6/22/2010. {LB}
Brian Scott, President of the Firefighters union in Evanston, Illinois delivered a powerful message to the Evanston City Council on Monday, June 21, 2010.
City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz is trying to lay off 3 firefighters/paramedics in a bid to exert unfair pressure on the union as it tries to bargain in good faith on a new contract.
"I was told", Brian Scott told the meeting, "that as long as you go along with whatever the police officers were awarded in arbitration, just go with whatever AFSCME settled with a couple weeks later, this all will go away. Is this how the city now negotiates in good faith? We’re going to lay off firefighters for arbitrations that haven’t begun, for awards that don’t even exist?"
"In the future is the City going to start off every contract negotiation with laying off a couple of firefighters just in case things don’t go their way? Are we allowed to negotiate our own contracts, or do we have to kind of just concede whatever the other bargaining units come up with, or else?"
President Brian Scott’s full speech. More information: www.evanstonfirefacts.com.
News Video #100618: The New Chicago Teachers Union -- Reclaim the Power {LB601}
On June 18, 2010, just one week after their election victory in the Chicago Teachers Union, three top officers of the new CTU leadership join Labor Beat’s host Wayne Heimbach in a discussion on the meaning of their win and the road ahead to restore union and community power to public education in Chicago.
Present were Karen Lewis, President elect; Kristine Mayle, Financial Sec. elect; and Michael Brunson, Recording Sec. elect.
The victory of Karen Lewis and her reform slate in the Chicago Teachers Union has significance on a national level. It is a shot across the bow of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s juggernaut of dismantling and privatizing public education.
It is also the dawn of new era of teachers union alliances with school-community and neighborhood organizations in the fight against Mayor Daley’s gentrification marauders.
News Video #100615: Chicago Protest Against School Board Vote, 6/15/2010. {LB}
June 15, 2010--In a sneak-attack special CPS Board meeting today, the board voted unanimously to enable CPS CEO Ron Huberman to enact class size increases to 35 and lay off 2,700 more teachers.
This amidst the recent Chicago Teachers Union election effecting a transfer of leadership from Marilyn Stewart to new President elect Karen Lewis.
Lewis’ campaign emphasized an end to constant retreat before CPS attacks, and a demand to have the school board precisely reveal its budget, and cut its own management-bloated salaries.
All the while the State of Illinois owes the schools many millions in funding. Today’s events are but a moment in the growing historic clash over the needs for the public sector and the looting of public funds by capitalist-controlled state governments.
News Video #100613: Ron Huberman, Show Us the Money! {LB}
The Marilyn Stewart administration has now been voted out of office, and the next job to be done is to kick out Chicago Public Schools’ CEO Ron Huberman, and get some honest and accurate information about where school money is and how it’s spent.
Huberman has said that "we’re going to have to raise class sizes, cut pensions," Kristine Mayle, CTU Financial Secretary elect, points out. "For the last 8 years the Board has made these projections in January and February and every year except for one, I believe, they were wrong. Last year they said that we have a $350,000,000 deficit and it ended up that we had an $80,000,000 surplus. On average over the last 8 years they’ve been $467,000,000 off."
Scenes and interviews from the massive teachers union/school community protest in Chicago’s Loop against the cuts on May 25, 2010. Also, the street press conference by union/community activists on April 28 at the State of Illinois building. "We’re here today to deliver a letter to our Attorney General to ensure that CPS is not in compliance with that Freedom of Information Act," says Jackson Potter, CTU trustee elect. "Oftentimes they ignore them, they don’t provide the data that is required by state law. So we have to go into this building [State of Illinois] to get them to tell us the honest truth."
Labor Express: New show, listen on demand. {LBLE} –n–
New one-hour shows every Monday begin with labor news headlines and continue with timely interviews.
Chicago’s unique labor news and current affairs weekly radio program. Affiliated with The Committee for Labor Access and the Labor Beat television series.
Recent one-hour shows can be downloaded and played. The site offers podcasts and extra nonbroadcast content, too. Listen weekly at 10am Chicago time via internet streaming at www.wluw-fm.org, or on Chicago’s North Side over WLUW-FM, 88.7 MHz.
Detailed information about the shows is at www.LaborExpress.ORG.
Labor Beat: Pulse of the Unions {LB599}
The 2010 Labor Notes conference in Detroit featured a number of labor struggles and the bestowing of "Troublemaker Awards."
This report includes a spontaneous demonstration at the Detroit Hyatt Hotel, where the conference was held, to protest the treatment of what is known as the Hyatt 100, 100 non union housekeepers fired at the Boston Hyatt. (The Hyatt in Detroit is unionized.)
Video of speeches and interviews with: Mark Brenner, Director, Labor Notes East Coast; Elise Bryant, National Labor College and EmCee for Awards presentation; Aracelly Arango, Fired - Hyatt 100, 23-yr hotel worker; Francisco Ramirez Cuellar, President, Colombia mineworkers union; Aaron Beaudry, Vale-Inco striker; Bernie Arseneau, Vale-Inco striker; Darrell Nichols, Member - ILWU Local 30, International Longshore and Warehouse Union; Jacinto Martinez Serna, Secretary of Work, Union Local 65, Mexico; and Cananea Miner, Currently on strike since 2007, Mexico
Darrell Nichols (ILWU Local 30 Rio Tinto worker), who received a Troublemaker Award, put it this way: "When I take this back, this is another tool in our toolbox. I can hang this on our wall. Rio Tinto is always calling us troublemakers. Now we have a plaque to prove that we are troublemakers."
News Video #100602: Chicago Protests Gaza Flotilla Attack {LB}
On June 1, 2010, over 1,000 protesters took over the street in front of the Israeli consulate in Chicago.
Here is a brief snippet. Showing their appreciation for solidarity from Turkey in the affair, they chant "Long Live Turkey!"
Labor Beat: Illinois Budget Crunch: Tax the Rich! {LB598}
In the Spring of 2010, as the budget crisis in the state of Illinois continued its meltdown, a large demonstration took place in Springfield, the state capital.
Scenes and speeches, plus interviews with union activists. The video shows why House Bill 174, a tax increase bill endorsed by many of the unions present, may fall short.
Steve Edwards, President of AFSCME 2858 and supporter of Public Workers Unite, says, "The problem I have with HB 174...is that it mainly taxes working class people. Why don’t we go where the money is...and tax the rich?"
Labor Beat: Iraqi Journalists Protest {LB597}
In 2009 a big demonstration of journalists and news organizations in Iraq took place in Baghdad. They were protesting the repressive measures that the government and the occupation has imposed upon them.
Over the years of the occupation, many journalists have been physically attacked or even killed, while their equipment has been confiscated and their offices invaded. At the same time, foreign western journalists have been given preferential treatment.
All of this may explain why U.S. TV news consumers are getting a highly filtered view of what is really happening there.
This video was made by Sana TV, a non-sectarian, pro-labor, pro-women’s and student’s rights TV show. Sana TV has also experienced such repression as it has tried over the years to accurately report on events there as they affect working people.
Labor Beat presents this video for the first time to U.S. audiences, on cable tv and on the Internet. It has been edited to shorten its length. English subtitles.
News Video #100511: Illinois Budget Crunch: Tax the Rich! {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins n
News Video #100502: Emily Mueller, President of Chicago ACTS {LB}
Emily Mueller, President of Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff, speaks before a gathering of union activists at the Haymarket Square monument during May Day, 2010 commemoration.
Mins 3:22
News Video #100501: Zenroren May Day in Chicago {LB}
Japanese Labor Federation Zenroren dedicates a plaque at the Haymarket Square monument and then speaks at the beginning of Chicago’s big May Day march.
Mins 2:50 News Video #100429: Iraqi Journalists Protest {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 26
Labor Beat: Railroad Workers United {LB596}
Rail freight carrier and passenger train companies have been finding ways to get their workers to do more for less for the past few decades.
Considering how much the economy of the U.S. depends upon the massive amount of freight moved by trains, one would think the unions representing those workers to be very powerful. However, there are a dozen different unions, divided among craft, representing the various workers in the several rail companies in this country.
To counter the divisive race to the bottom caused by cross-union fighting in the industry, rank-and-file rail workers of every craft have joined together to form RAILROAD WORKERS UNITED.
This group seeks to improve working conditions and pay through a united front approach. Their efforts to promote unity, solidarity, and internal democracy in their various unions has the potential to awaken the class consciousness of some of the most powerful and important workers in the industrial world.
In this episode of Labor Beat, "Railroad Workers United," we recap the group’s 2008 founding convention as their members discuss the motivations and need for such an organization.
Camera/Editing: Andrew Friend; Additional Video: Steve Dalber.
News Video #100427: The Ashes of Haymarket, Franklin Rosemont {LB}
At his death in April, 2009, Chicago’s Franklin Rosemont, scholar, surrealist poet, and, with partner Penelope Rosemont, head of Charles H. Kerr publishing company, had long been a vigorous advocate for labor history and a local authority on our city’s role in it.
In 2003 he discussed the Haymarket Affair and visited Waldheim (now Forest Home) Cemetery, where lay the Haymarket anarchist victims of a police provocation, along with later generations of radicals. Lucy Parsons, wife of Haymarket martyr Albert Parsons, is buried a few feet from the Haymarket monument, which is visited by guests from around the world. A portion of Joe Hill’s ashes were also scattered here.
At the anniversary of his passing, Labor Beat presents for the first time on the Internet this brief visit with Franklin Rosemont in his world, doing what he did best...taking us back through this rich history,with good stories and some jokes too.
News Video #100417: Railroad Workers United {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 28:16
News Video #100406: U. I. Chicago Graduate Employees Get An Agreement, 4/5/2010. {LB}
The Graduate Employees Organization at University of Illinois Chicago held a protest on April 5, 2010 before going into negotiations with the University’s administration.
After a 13 hour mediation session going into the evening, the GEO UIC won an agreement.
Here are scenes, interviews and speeches from that spirited rally of about 150 graduate student,faculty, undergraduate student, and other campus unions supporters.
Labor Beat: Give Us Back Our Public Transit {LB595}
The leadership of Chicago’s union of CTA and PACE drivers and workers, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241, engaged in a roundtable discussion with Labor Beat host Wayne Heimbach on April 2, 2010.
The discussion was broadcast live on cable television and the Internet and included questions and comments from the Internet listeners..
The topic: the current situation with management pressing for contract concessions while trying to get transit riders to blame the union for CTA service cuts.
Included were: Darrell Jefferson, President-Business Agent; Michael Simmons, Recording Secretary; Dan Hrycyk; Financial Secretary; Carlos J. Acevedo/ Maintenance ABA.
President Jefferson pointed out that "The current administration at CTA is trying to bust our union, and we’re trying to fight to hold on to it.
In the early 1980s the Reagan administration had cut off all federal funding to cities with over 200,000, and when the CTA could not stay afloat with state funds, the union came in and bailed them out."
This was done by the union dipping into its own pension fund. "They got used to coming back and coming back, and sooner or later, enough is enough," said Carlos Acevedo. "We just can’t give any more."
Labor Beat: Funding Public Sector Services. The Value of Illinois Communities. {LB594}
Historic attacks on funding public sector services for Illinois communities are ravaging the state.
In Evanston, a city council budget hearing brought out an overflow crowd of citizens and city employees affected by these cuts.
In the crosshairs were the fire department, public library, family and senior services, public access tv, and others.
This show questions the business model used in running our communities, and points to the fact that new revenues are needed to restructure a progressive taxation, in a state now near the bottom nationally for taxation rates.
Interviews include: Florence Estes, Staff Rep. AFSCME Council 31; Larry Spivak, Regional Director, AFSCME Council 31; Kevin Johnson, Pres., AFSCME Local 1891; Brian Scott, Pres., Fire Fighters Assoc. Local 742. Also testimonies from Evanston residents and workers. 18 minutes.
News Video #100204: GEM-CORE Summit on Education Fights, 1/9/2010. {LB592}
Video: ’GEM-CORE Summit 2010’
On January 9, 2010 GEM (Grassroots Education Movement) and CORE (Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators) held a public education ’summit’ at Malcom X College in Chicago.
It convened to evaluate the lessons on fighting closings and turnarounds in the public Schools.
"What’s happened to schools all over this city... They were able to pick us off, one by one." Karen Lewis, a teacher, described the situation: "The Board [of Education], who have no parents, no graduates from Chicago Public Schools, except for maybe the guy in charge every once in a while, people who do not care about public education, don’t have their children in public schools, never went to public schools... made the decision to close public schools, open something else, then tell you it’s a public school. Oh, it’s a public school because they’re using our tax dollars... But who’s running it? Somebody that’s making money from public schools."
Includes specific discussion and scenes of James N. Thorp School, Fenger High School, Sec. of Ed. Duncan’s plans to expand the ’Chicago model’, and more.
Speakers and interviews included: A youth community leader; Karen Lewis, Candidate for President of Chicago Teachers Union; Cheryl Johnson, Committee for Safe Passage; Pauline Lipman, Teachers 4 Social Justice; Kellina Mojica, Chicago Youth Initiating Change; Terrie McCrary, Teacher; Jitu Brown, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization; Wanda Hopkins, Parents United for Responsible Education; Lois Ashford, Trustee, Chicago Teachers Pension Fund; and Jackson Potter, Candidate for Vice-President, Chicago Teachers Union.
Labor Beat: Rubina Jamil {LB590}
- 1 - Rubina Jamil is President of Pakistan Working Women Organization. While attending as a guest speaker the 3rd National Assembly of U.S. Labor Against the War in December, 2009, she gave this interview to Labor Beat.
In it she discusses her organization, the situation that working women face in Pakistan, the U.S. military occupation of the Pakistan region, and the political needs of the Pakistani working class. Includes photos and video footage of the labor protests and anti-war demonstrations in Pakistan.
- 2 - The second half of the show presents encore segments videotaped in Chicago’s main Pakistani neighborhood on Devon Avenue, including a protest against Obama’s policy of supporting military raids in Pakistan and an anti-war march.
Labor Beat: Healthcare Crisis in Illinois, Episode 5: Checking the Vital Signs {LB593}
This fifth show in the Labor Beat series ’Healthcare Crisis in Illinois’ continues to examine the disparity in the delivery of healthcare in Illinois (and the nation) and how we can reform this broken system.
Labor Beat host Wayne Heimbach invites comments from a powerful panel of labor movement healthcare activists. The discussion takes place in January 2010, the midst of the legislative dead-end in Congress over healthcare "reform".
Members of the panel are: Dr. Quentin Young, National Coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program; Brenda Langford, President, NNOC/NNU Region 13, and Vice President, National Nurses United; Steve Edwards, President of AFSCME Local 2858, and member of Socialist Alternative.
"Polls show today that two-thirds of Americans are for a government-sponsored Medicare-like program," Dr. Young offered. And "59 percent of US doctors, a very conservative group, support a government-sponsored, tax-based" program.
Regarding the class nature of how things are going, he explained that "the reduction in services, the closing of facilities are pointed to people at the bottom of the ladder, and at the same time luxury hospitals are still being built in the city and in this country."
Considering the obstacles faced by advocates of a single payer, government-administered movement,the next step should be: "People on the street," Steve Edwards answered. "Within the NNU," Brenda Langford added, "we are aggressively working at organizing the RNs across the country . . ., and we’re promoting the single payer health program."
News Video #100102: Healthcare Crisis in Illinois, Episode 5: Checking the Vital Signs {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 28:16
News Video #100127: Public Workers Unite MLK Day Demo Chicago, Jan. 18, 2010 {LB}
A coalition of public workers targeted several locations in Chicago’s Loop to dramatize the areas of the public sector that are being dismantled by corporation-controlled government.
To commemorate Martin Luther King day, on Jan. 18, 2010, Public Workers Unite began at Chicago Transit Authority headquarters, then marched to Boeing headquarters, then on to Chicago Public Schools headquarters, and ended up at the State of Illinois Building.
Speaking are.: Earl Silbar, Public Workers Unite; Carlos Acevedo, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241; Mike Pitula, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization; Gwen Johnson, former CTA bus driver; Erek Slater, CTA Bus Driver; Andy Thayer, Gay Liberation Network; Joleen Kirschenman, Public Workers Unite; Rosita Chatonda, Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE); Kurt Hilgendorf, CORE; Jackson Potter, CORE; Bunny Johnson, Public Workers Unite, member AFSCME 2858.
For more information on Public Workers Unite: http://publicworkersunite.org/.
News Video #100126: Rally for Mass Transit Chicago, Jan. 20, 2010 {LB591}
Chicago Transit Authority union members and CTA transit users protested in front of the CTA headquarters on Wednesday, January 20.
The ongoing and future threatened cuts by the CTA management will double wait times for bus riders, cut service to low income/minority areas, overcrowd buses and trains, to mention only a few serious effects.
Speeches and interviews from Marcellus Barnes, International VP, Amalgamated Transit Union; Debbie Pittman, Concerned Citizens of Paratransit; Carlos Acevedo, Asst. Business Agent, ATU Local 241; Michael Simmons, Recording Sec., ATU Local 241; Diane Simons, ATU 241 member.
News Video #100109: Victory at SK Tools. Healthcare Crisis in Illinois - Episode 4 {LB589}
Labor Beat’s 4th segment in its series Healthcare Crisis in Illinois briefly recapitulates segment 3, then goes to its main topic: the strike of Teamsters Local 743 against Chicago area’s SK Hand Tools Corporation.
The workers voted to go on strike after their employer canceled their healthcare plan without notice.
Their fight represented the statewide and national fight for workers’ healthcare coverage as employers cut healthcare as insurance costs rise.
"We found out we had no health insurance when we went to the doctor, or tried to get a prescription filled. If it can happen to us, it can happen to anyone. We all need health insurance," said Norma Trinidad, SK Tool Striker.
The strike finally ended with Local 743 keeping its healthcare coverage.
Scenes included are the SK Tools picket line, protest at Sears in downtown Chicago, the strike victory rally, and more.
Labor Beat: Let's Fix Chicago's Public Transit! {LB588}
Chicago public transit riders and workers have become fed up with perennial funding crises that translate into service cuts and attacks on working conditions and jobs.
There needs to be a different, positive solution with adequate funding, and transit riders and workers need to control the process and the system.
With Mike Pitula, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization; and Erek Slater, CTA Bus Driver. Also Elwood Flowers, ATU 308; Carlos Acevedo, ATU 241; Dan Hrycyk, Financial Sec., ATU 241; Heather Benno, NoCTAcuts.org.
News Video #100102: Hassan Juma'a Awad Interview {LB}
Hassan Juma’a Awad, President of Iraq Federation of Oil Unions, is interviewed while attending as a guest speaker the 3rd National Assembly of U.S. Labor Against the War in December, 2009.
Mins 10 News Video #091225: Let's Fix Chicago's Public Transit! {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 23
Labor Beat: Pain Dry Ice Strike / Obama's War / Honduras Election {LB587}
- 1. Pain Dry Ice Strike
Teamsters 705 members employed by Pain Dry Ice in Addison, IL were forced to strike over unfair labor practices.
In a campaign to put pressure on management, the union has implemented a strategy of following the scab trucks carrying dry ice to delivery locations and conducting ambulatory picketing there to inform customers about the strike.
- 2. Day One of Obama’s War
Within 24 hours of President Obama’s announcement of major US troop increases to Afghanistan, a coalition of anti-war groups on Dec. 2, 2009 assembled in Chicago’s Loop (at Federal Paza) to denounce this move.
This is now Obama’s war, not a leftover from Bush’s military policies. One sign at the rally said it all: "So Much for the Peace Prize!"
- 3. Chicago Protests Sham Honduras Election
On the day so-called elections took place in Honduras (Nov. 29, 2009) protesters assembled in front of the Honduran Consulate in Chicago to decry the fraud of this electoral process set up after the military coup against the legally elected President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya.
News Video #091219: Rubina Jamil Interview {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 15:15
News Video #091212: Day One of Obama's War {LB}
Within 24 hours of President Obama’s announcement of major US troop increases to Afghanistan, a coalition of anti-war groups on Dec. 2, 2009 assembled in Chicago’s Loop (at Federal Paza) to denounce this move.
This is now Obama’s war, not a leftover from Bush’s military policies. One sign at the rally said it all: "So Much for the Peace Prize!
News Video #091211: Stop CTA Service Cuts {LB}
A rally against mass transit service cuts in Chicago took place on Dec. 9, 2009.
Carlos Acevedo, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241, told a large protest crowd in front of CTA headquarters: "It seems the riding public gets numb to it because it seems not to happen, they get bailed out every year, but these cuts are real. You will be affected by them. It’s a different style of service cuts they are making, that will make you stand on the corner for a long, long time. They are going to eliminate buses on each route. They can avert this. We need a real solution for mass transit, to demand proper funding for mass transit."
Heather Benno, NoCTACuts.org, added: "This is a cause of justice. They say that they’re going to lay us off and cut our services. They say that there is nothing we can do. But by being here in the streets, we are fighting back."
Robert Kelly, President ATU Local 308, told the crowd of union and community activists: "Reducing services in this city, laying people off is a tragedy. We need to keep these jobs. We need the public involved."
News Video #091204: Chicago Protests Sham Honduras Election {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 8 News Video #091201: Pain Dry Ice Strike {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 10
News Video #091129: Help Us Help You. Caseworkers protest, Nov. 18, 2009. {LB}
AFSCME 2858 case workers for the Illinois Department of Human Services held an informational protest at the largest welfare facility in the state of Illinois
on Nov. 18 to underline the crisis facing the state’s welfare system. There are not enough workers to process the cases, or, put another way, case workers are given far too many cases than they can possibly handle (1200 instead of 600, the recommended number). AFSCME 2858 spokesperson Bunnie Johnson pointed out that welfare workers are like other public workers, such as bus drivers and school teachers, who are fighting cuts and layoffs, from which the public suffers as well as public workers. They hope that actions like this will be part of a general fightback growing to defend the public sector and its workforce.
Welfare workers protest at largest Dept of Human Services center in Illinois Photo: Labor Beat
Labor Beat: Healthcare Crisis in Illinois - Episode 3, Healthcare Showdown {LB585}
Third in the Labor Beat series on healthcare crises in Illinois.
Includes the Governor of Illinois, Pat Quinn, showing up on the Teamsters 743 picket line at SK Handtools. He puts on a Teamsters hat, grabs a picket sign, and gives a lengthy speech about why workers need healthcare reform, single payer in particular.
The SK Handtools strike over, among other things, the workers’ loss of healthcare benefits is part of an historic national struggle over whether under this system good healthcare is a right for all or only for those who have money.
Labor Beat: ABA You're the Worst / Showdown in Chicago / Chicago Street Sitdown for Boston Hyatt Workers {LB584}
-1- ABA, You’re the Worst
The Oct. 26, 2009 protest against the national meeting of the American Bankers Association in Chicago.
Actions, interviews, speeches. Begins at Chicago offices of Goldman Sachs (Goldman "Sucks") and then goes to the office building of Wells Fargo. There, hundreds of protesters occupy the lobby. Length 9:57.
-2- Showdown in Chicago
October 27, 2009, on the third day of protest during the national meeting in Chicago of the American Bankers Association, some 4-5 thousand labor and community activist marched down Michigan Avenue and then to the Sheraton Hotel, where the ABA was meeting, and held a protest rally.
This day of protest was called by its organizers "Showdown in Chicago: The American People vs. Wall Street Banks."
Speakers included Dennis Gannon (President, Chicago Federation of Labor), Tom Balanoff (President, SEIU Illinois Council), Richard Trumka (President, AFL-CIO), Armando Robles (President, UE 1110, of the Republic Windows plant occupation), Denise Dixon (Executive Director, Action Now).
Dixon noted, "Every 13 seconds, another home goes into foreclosure in urban areas all over the country that are already beaten down. ... Enough is enough!"
Tom Balanoff asked the rally, "why are we here today? We’re here to send a strong message to the bankers and the financiers, it’s time that they be held accountable."
-3- Chicago Street Sitdown for Boston Hyatt Workers
On Sept. 24, 2009, in front of the Chicago Ave. entrance to the Chicago Park Hyatt, hundreds of Chicago hotel workers (UNITE-HERE members) and supporters sat down in the street, in solidarity with Park Hyatt workers in Boston who were fired.
Interviews and scenes from the dramatic sitdown in the street.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfFWXVNJo6U www.blip.tv/file/2679301.
[PLAY NOW. Use http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfFWXVNJo6U . Or www.blip.tv/file/2679301].
ABA You're the Worst {LB}
Within: Labor Beat: ABA You're the Worst / Showdown in Chicago / Chicago Street Sitdown for Boston Hyatt Workers LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
News Video #091028: Bankers Meeting Protest - 'Showdown in Chicago' {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 8?
News Video #091027: Bankers Meeting Protest - 'ABA, You're the Worst' {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 9:57
News Video #091018: Healthcare Crisis in Illinois - Episode 2, The Public Only Option {LB583}
The second report in this series briefly recapitulates Episode 1 and then covers a series of speakers and interviews from the Labor Day event at Pullman on Sept. 7, 2009, where we hone in on the public option and single payer.
To those gathered at that commemoration, Dr. Claudia Fegan (Physicians for National Healthcare) spoke: "As we stand here today, there are 46 million people who are uninsured. And 75 percent of those people are working folks and their families."
Dr. Ann Scheetz, working with the Illinois Single Payer Coalition, explained in an interview, "the only healthcare reform that counts is the single payer program that is embodied at the national level as HR676, and at the state level in HB311. This is the only reform that will actually cover everybody because it makes coverage automatic. It is also the only reform that can contain costs. This can only come about through a massive movement of all the people, including of course the labor movement."
State Representative Mary Flowers, who is chair of the Healthcare Committee, said: "I see so many of my friends out here for single payer. We must send our leaders in Washington, DC a message. We must tell them that we don’t want access to insurance, we want access to healthcare. Therein lies the difference."
Jorge Mujica, immigrant rights activist, addressed the issue of undocumented workers and the national healthcare debate. "Today on Labor Day immigrants came out to march as American workers, born elsewhere, but as American workers. ... Mr. Barack Obama said a month ago that the priority in his government is healthcare reform and we will talk about immigration reform in about a year. And our response is, we are willing to work of course for healthcare reform, but we want a healthcare reform that is inclusive, because you should know that this healthcare reform we are talking about excludes immigrants...Let’s include every American worker in the healthcare reform."
Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. noted that "115 years after Pullman [the Pullman strike], there is still a debate about citizenship...there is no such thing as an illegal human being." Congressman Jackson then compared the issue of private vs public option to the systems for mail delivery: "We do not have in our mighty constitution the right to healthcare which every human being deserves. We are here to demand a more perfect union for every American...The private option is ’FedEx’ and ’UPS’. The public option, for under 50 cents, is ...the ’US Postal Service’. The public option covers the barrios and the ghettos. The American people deserve coverage from one end of this nation to the other."
Other speakers in the video include: State Rep. Constance A. Howard; State Senator Donne E. Trotter; State Rep. Al Riley; John McHale, SK Hand Tools striker; Richard Berg, President, Teamsters 743.
Labor Beat: Healthcare Crisis in Illinois - Episode 1 {LB582}
This video is the first in a series of reports on the many aspects of the healthcare crisis in Illinois, first looking at Teamsters on strike over a healthcare issue, and then at an important community sampling, including healthcare professionals, speaking out at a healthcare rally in Evanston.
The strike began when SK Handtools stopped medical coverage for their workers, and didn’t even bother to tell them. The workers found out about it when they started getting medical bills they thought were covered by their job.
The union, IBT Local 743, went on strike. David Biedrzycki, a 25-year employee and union steward, tells us "we need our healthcare for our families. People are in need right now." Danny, another 743 member on strike, says "I owe $20,000 in medical bills."
The crisis impacts many communities in Illinois. At a candlelight vigil for healthcare in Evanston on Sept. 2, Marcia Bernsten says: "We really need to be out in the streets signing petitions, calling our congressmen, whatever it takes to get meaningful healthcare reform passed, and passed in this Congress".
Among several speakers covered, Margaree Figaro, a pediatrician, says "slowly over the last six months I’ve become extremely disturbed by the national epidemic involving layoffs of doctors, nurses and medical support staff in both public and private hospitals."
This video unveils a healthcare crisis that is growing into an social epidemic in Illinois, taking multiple forms as it affects many different sectors of the working class.
News Video #091004: Chicago Street Sitdown for Boston Hyatt Workers, 9/24/2009. {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 9:48
Labor Beat: The Bombing of Sadr City / Iraq Freedom Congress {LB581} –n–
- 1. Very few US television viewers have seen the kind of footage presented in the "Bombing of Sadr City", which has been edited down to fit our Labor Beat time slot. This is, in fact, the US tv premiere of this video.
It records the events in May, 2008 in Sadr City, Iraq as US shells strike civilian areas. Sana TV, an Iraqi tv organization, shot this footage during the attack, and during the dramatic arrival and treatment of the attack’s victims at a local hospital.
There is no corporate network commentator filtering the images from us in a studio thousands of miles away, telling us what to think; we learn what the people themselves think as they are caught in the midst of the attack.
- 2. The second half of the show is a press conference (again, edited down to fit Labor Beat’s time slot) by Iraq Freedom Congress (http://www.ifcongress.com/English/), which produces Sana TV.
The IFC is a pro-union, pro-women’s, pro-students’ rights organization in Iraq which is not part of any religious current, but instead calls for a secular Iraqi society. The IFC calls for the immediate exit of the US troops by means of a political struggle. English subtitles.
Labor Beat: National People's Summit {LB580}
Detroit, Michigan - While Automotive CEO’s meet at the Renniasance Center, the castaways of their previous 30 year policy appear at the front door.
Gregg Shotwell, Marion Cramer and Frank Hammer, among others, explain the economic situations that caused this present condition.
Labor Beat: Peace on Parade {LB579}
Intrepid Labor Beat reporters march with Peace contingents in Evergreen Park, Chicago-Archer Ave, Homewood, IL and stand with protesters in the Taste of Chicago July 2-4, 2009 measuring the mood of the citizenry concerning War.
Mins 28est News Video #090819: National People's Summit, 6/14/2009. {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 19
Labor Beat: Secretary of Education Duncan: Pushing the Chicago Plan {LB578}
Before President Obama appointed Arne Duncan Secretary of Education, Duncan was the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools.
Under his control there, Chicago Public Schools endured a relentless wave of privatization, school closings, militarization, union busting and blaming teachers for the problems of urban schools.
Now the war on public education pursued during the Bush administration will only continue and intensify under the new Secretary of Education Duncan.
His Chicago Plan, as former teacher and editor of Substance News George Schmidt explains, is the template for a national strategy to dismantle public education.
Through revealing footage and comments from Chicago teachers, this video shows the resistance that has been growing among teachers and community organizations.
Here is a national alert for everyone who cares about the future of public schools, threatened now by Arne Duncan and his corporate vision for the nation’s school systems.
News Video #090819: 5-Hour Strike at SK Hand Tools, 7/31/2009. {LB}
Teamsters Local 743 set up an early sunrise strike line at SK Hand Tools in Chicago and McCook, Illinois on July 31, 2009.
The company "has unilaterally withdrawn health insurance, failed to extend the contract during negotiations, and demanded wage concessions that barely put members above the minimum wage," the union web site stated. The action was approved in a vote by a margin of 67 to 2.
Includes picket line scenes and interviews with IBT 743 President Richard Berg; Mark Meinster, Int’l Rep., United Electrical Workers; David Biedrzycki, IBT Local 743 Steward; Donnie Von Moore, IBT 743 Union Representative.
Labor Beat: Profit Over Women's Health {LB577}
This show covers a spirited press conference/protest outside the University of Chicago administration building to halt the planned closing of the 47th Street women’s clinic, and to call for a halt to the policies of the U of C Medical Center in pushing the poor out the door.
It took place on June 30, 2009, and was called by the Coalition for Healthcare Access, Responsibility and Transparency (http://www.stopchicago.org).
Other demands of CHART were:
- Immediate moratorium on clinic closures - Restore services - Restore and expand patient transportation from community to hospital - Expand staffing and beds in the Emergency Room and General Medicine - Open the hospital to new patients, regardless of medical insurance - Living wage jobs and good benefits for all staff
After the press conference, we follow the protest as it reconvenes to hold a BBQ and picket across the street from Univ. of Chicago President Zimmer.
News Video #090804: Peace on Parade 2009, 7/2/2009. {LB}
Intrepid Labor Beat reporters march with Peace contingents in Evergreen Park, Chicago-Archer Ave, Homewood, IL and stand with protesters in the Taste of Chicago July 2-4, 2009 measuring the mood of the citizenry concerning War.
News Video #090802: Secretary of Education Duncan: Pushing the Chicago Plan, 7/2009. {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 26:52 News Video #090722: Profit Over Women's Health, 6/30/2009. {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 26:20
Labor Beat: Wells Fargo Forclosure Protest / CAT Protest / Rally for Single Payer / Michael Moore at Sicko Rally {LB575}
Four segments.
- 1. Wells Fargo Foreclosure Protest. Protest about home foreclosures in front of Wells Fargo Bank Chicago, IL June 11, 2009.
Speakers: Mike McDowell of South West Organizing Project; Ted Wysocki, Moline, IL, National Community Reinvestment Coalition; and Fred of the Northside Action for Justice.
-2. CAT Shareholders - June 10, 2009. In the 6th year of protesting at Caterpillar Inc. shareholders meetings, demonstrators targeted Northern Trust bank in Chicago, IL to educate the public about how Caterpillar bulldozers are used to destroy Palestinian homes.
Among organizations participating were US Campaign, Chicagoans Against Apartheid in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, Arab-Jewish Partnership for a Just Peace in the Middle East.
-3. Rally for Single Payer. While President Obama addressed the American Medical Association on June 15, 2009 in Chicago, Single Payer advocates held a demonstration.
"Single payer is the only option that is really going to provide healthcare for everybody," one supporter said. Interviews and scenes. PLAY VIDEO: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nnxNItgTx0.
-4. Michael Moore Sicko Rally Speech. In 2007, to promote his new film, Michael Moore spoke at an outdoor rally in Chicago, making this powerful speech in favor of single payer. PLAY VIDEO: www.archive.org/details/CLALBMICHAELANDSTUDS.
News Video #090620: Rally for Single Payer, 6/15/2009. {LB} –n–
While President Obama addressed the American Medical Association on June 15, 2009 in Chicago, Single Payer advocates held a demonstration. "Single payer is the only option that is really going to provide healthcare for everybody," one supporter said. Interviews and scenes.
Mins 7:30
Labor Beat: Raises on the Backs of Lost UIC Jobs / Keep Chrysler Jobs in Kenosha {LB574}
- 1. "Raises on the Backs of Lost UIC Jobs."
At the University of Illinois Chicago campus, on May 21, 2009, a broad coalition of students, campus workers, graduate employees, doctors, and union representatives picketed the meeting of the Board of Trustees.
Earlier, some of the protesters had been allowed to address the Trustees meeting. Video cameras were not permitted; but Labor Beat obtained stills of the meeting.
The protest was organized by the UIC-ABC Coalition; and it demanded that the "University’s budget not be balanced on the backs of workers, students, and community members". It called for "no layoffs or bumping, no tuition or fee hikes, healthcare for all, access for all students."
Earlier in the month the University had declared that over 90 civil service positions would be eliminated or bumped. Many of these positions would affect SEIU Local 73 members.
Toward the end of the demo, it was announced that members of the Board of Trustees had agreed to meet with the protestors, the results of which are yet to be reported. Speeches, interviews, scenes of the protest.
- 2. "Keep Chrysler Jobs in Kenosha."
The spirited May 18, 2009 rally in Kenosha, WI to stop Chrysler’s plans to close its engine plant there, leaving the work to be done in Mexico.
Scenes of the demonstration at the plant gate, interviews with autoworkers, plus speeches by Kenosha UAW Local 72 President Glenn Stark, and Dennis Williams, UAW Region 4 Director.
The autoworkers call upon President Obama to intervene to save their jobs. On-demand playback is available at laborbeat.org
Labor Beat: International Labor Conference / Gaza Protest in Wasat, Iraq {LB573}
- International Labor Conference. A 15-minute video report on the historic March 13-14, 2009 meeting in Erbil, Iraq.
A recent Labor Beat show featured the speech there of Iraq War Veteran Aaron Hughes ("Aaron at Erbil"). This show focuses on the main contents of the International Labor Conference.
Includes interviews and some brief speeches, as well as summaries of the final resolutions. It was attended by 200 delegates from Iraqi unions in 15 of 18 provinces, as well as 15 international delegates. This is an edited-for-English version of a video produced by Sana TV in Japan.
-Gaza Protest in Waset, Iraq. Here is a unique glimpse into a street demonstration in Iraq, as it protests the Israeli attacks on Gaza earlier this year.
The demonstration, organized by Iraq Freedom Congress (a political organization in Iraq (www.ifcongress.com/English), marches to the headquarters of a local politician ("Manager of the Azizya Court") and presents it demands. This is an edited-for-English version of a video produced by Sana TV, which is a production of Iraq Freedom Congress.
News Video #090521: Keep Chrysler Jobs in Kenosha, 5/18/2009. {LB} –n–
A spirited May 18, 2009 rally in Kenosha, Wisconsin to stop Chrysler plans to close its engine plant there, leaving the work to be done in Mexico.
Scenes of the demonstration at the plant gate; interviews with autoworkers; plus speeches by Kenosha UAW Local 72 President Glenn Stark and UAW Region 4 Director Dennis Williams. The autoworkers call upon President Obama to intervene to save their jobs. Video by Labor Beat.
Labor Beat: Defend Professor Capeheart / Support Cintas Workers / No Games / Daley's Snowstorm {LB572}
- Defend Professor Capeheart. - Support Cintas Workers - No Games - Daley’s Snowstorm
Note: Descriptions of these segments and their on-demand playback links are provided separately in the Labor Beat show listings.
Labor Beat: Aaron at Erbil {LB571}
On March 13-14 an important International Labor Conference was held in Erbil, Iraq, which is in the Kurdistan region. Along with the 200 delegates from Iraqi trade unions and international unions, attending was a delegation from the U.S., comprised of representatives of U.S. Labor Against the War, and 2 representatives from Iraq Veterans Against the War.
Among those IVAW attending was Aaron Hughes, the subject of this 25 minute video.
Aaron explains why he attended the Conference, and places his return to Iraq as an anti-war veteran in the context of a similar visit by Vietnam Veterans Against the War to North Vietnam.
At the center of Aaron’s experience in Erbil is his short speech to the delegation apologizing for his role in the US military in oppressing the people of Iraq. This video is a documenting of that speech and the reactions of the audience, as well as Aaron’s anxiety about what the reactions would be.
The work of the Conference is also summarized by Aaron, enhanced with footage from Iraq Peacetv in Japan and Aaron’s own footage of the event. The experience of the Conference provides the basis of the IVAW delegate’s re-dedication of their goal of war reparations for the people and workers of Iraq.
News Video #090425: Defend Professor Loretta Capeheart, 4/23/2009. {LB}
Press Conference in Defense of Professor Loretta Capeheart
A press conference was held at Northeastern Illinois University on April 23, 2009 to defend Professor Loretta Capeheart.
The NEIU administration has attacked her for playing a leading role in the faculty union (AFT) and 2004 strike; for her defense of students arrested for protesting a campus CIA recruitment event; and for her other statements supporting minorities, labor, and academic freedom.
She has been denied appointment to her duly elected post as department chair; denied merited awards; and defamed by NEIU’s vice president in a faculty council meeting.
To sign the petition in support of Professor Capeheart: www.petitiononline.com/j4lc/petition.htm l.
Professor Capeheart is suing NEIUs President, Vice-President, and Provost for violation of her free speech rights and retaliation against her for exercising these rights in defense of labor, minorities, and academic freedom.
In this excerpt from the press conference, Professor Capeheart is joined by: Hector Reyes, Ph.D., Physical Science Dept, Assistant Professor, Harold Washington College; Susan Rosa, Ph.D. Associate Professor, History NEIU; Russell Bennjamin, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Political Science NEIU; Sharon K. Hahs, President NEIU; Samuel Vega, Union for Puerto Rican Students. For more information: 773-552-0394.
Labor Beat: Sixth Anniversary of the War / Chicago Closes 16 Schools {LB570}
-1- Protesting the 6th anniversary of the war in Iraq, a march through Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood took place on March 14, 2009.
The marchers decried the laundry list of outrages now endured by working people as a result of the continuing war crimes: diverting of funds from education, community clinics, social support structures; attacks on immigrant workers; the foisting of more militarism onto Palestine, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the list goes on.
Numerous interviews, some speeches, scenes. "Obama has just announced that there are going to be 50,000 troops staying in Iraq. That’s not a withdrawal plan" notes Shaun Harkin (ISO). About 19 minutes.
-2- Protest Against Chicago Board of Education Vote to Close 16 Schools / Feb 25, 2009
A big community, union and student protest at Chicago Board of Education as 16 Schools are slated for closing under Renaissance 2010. Feb 25, 2009. 10 minutes.
News Video #090416: Support Cintas Workers, 3/2009. {LB} –n–
Maria Ramirez and Norma Flieta were fired for not meeting production quotas in the laundry sort area at the Cintas plant at 6001 73rd St, near Chicago.
They say the reason Cintas fired them was because of their national origin and that this was an unfair work assignment.
Though the plant is not organized at the moment, UNITE HERE is organizing there. A protest action is shown in this video. (See http://www.uniformjustice.org/news/detail.php?news_id=1071 for more info.)
News Video #090414: Veteran Against the War Speaks to Conference in Iraq, 3/13/2009. {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 25 News Video #090410: No Olympic Games!, 4/02/09 {LB} –n–
Title: Daley’s Snowstorm.
It was no Daley lovefest when city workers, community, immigrant, human rights and anti-2016 activists gathered in Chicago Federal Plaza on April 2, 2009.
It was also the day the International Olympic Committee (IOC) came to town to survey the City’s bid. As far as we know, none attended.
News Video #090407: Sixth Anniversary of the War, 3/14/09 {LB} –n–
Protesting the 6th anniversary of the war in Iraq, a march through Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood took place on March 14, 2009.
The marchers decried the laundry list of outrages now endured by working people as a result of the continuing war crimes: diverting of funds from education, community clinics, social support structures; attacks on immigrant workers; the foisting of more militarism onto Palestine, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the list goes on.
Numerous interviews, some speeches, scenes. "Obama has just announced that there are going to be 50,000 troops staying in Iraq. That’s not a withdrawal plan," notes Shaun Harkin (ISO).
News Video #090405: Cops Union Pickets Mayor Daley, 4/02/09 {LB} –n–
Labor Beat.
Fraternal Order of Police Chicago Lodge 7 called out its off duty officers and surrounded City Hall demanding a contract from Mayor Daley after 21 months of delay.
Coincidently, it was the same day the International Olympic Committee arrived to survey the city for the 2016 games. Interviews with Mark Donohue, FOP President, Marilyn Stewart CTU President and Leroy Jones City Division Director of SEIU.
Labor Beat: Push Back Wage Theft {LB569}
Kim Bobo, author of the newly published Wage Theft in America, talks about ways to detect and stop the growing trend of wage theft in the U.S.
Drawing upon years of practical organizational experience, Bobo is an engaging and informative speaker. She is the founder of Interfaith Worker Justice.
Her down-to-earth talk is enhanced visually by Labor Beat through tables and location footage.
News Video #090321: IVAW at International Labor Conference in Iraq (Excerpt), 3/13/2009 {LB} –n–
Aaron at Erbil
Click here to view on bliptv: http://blip.tv/file/1989250
On March 13-14 an important International Labor Conference was held in Erbil, Iraq, which is in the Kurdistan region. Along with the 200 delegates from Iraqi trade unions and international unions, attending was a delegation from the U.S., comprised of representatives of U.S. Labor Against the War, and 2 representatives from Iraq Veterans Against the War. Among those IVAW attending was Aaron Hughes, the subject of this 25 minute video. Aaron explains why he attended the Conference, and places his return to Iraq as an anti-war veteran in the context of a similar visit by Vietnam Veterans Against the War to North Vietnam. At the center of Aaron’s experience in Erbil is his short speech to the delegation apologizing for his role in the US military in oppressing the people of Iraq. This video is a documenting of that speech and the reactions of the audience, as well as Aaron’s anxiety about what the reactions would be. The work of the Conference is also summarized by Aaron, enhanced with footage from Iraq Peacetv in Japan and Aaron’s own footage of the event. The experience of the Conference provides the basis of the IVAW delegate’s re-dedication of their goal of war reparations for the people and workers of Iraq.
====Iraq Veterans Against the War member Aaron Hughes talks about his speech at the historic March 13-14, 2009 International Labor Conference in Erbil, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
The Conference was also attended by representatives from U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW).
This is a short excerpt from an upcoming video from Labor Beat with additional footage from Japan Peace TV/Sana TV.
News Video #090316: Antiwar / Immigrants' Rights, 3/14/2009 {LB}
Labor Beat promoted and covered the 3/14/2009 Chicago Antiwar and Immigrant Rights Coalition march in the Pilsen neighborhood.
The following day, Labor Beat presented a 5 hour cable television broadcast of past marches. Some video clips from that broadcast are posted on the Internet.
The arrest of Mrs. Pat Vogel, local mother of a soldier in Iraq. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wwif0tOmlE&feature=channel_page.
Jorge Mujica on immigrants organizing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inAsZHdaLo4&feature=channel.
Andy Thayer, march organizer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfSIaFShm2w&feature=channel.
Earl Silbar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Apfd6eTtxGc&feature=channel.
Iraq Veterans Against the War. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBVBsTlTguU&feature=channel.
Rich Berg, SEIU local president. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQbXawdau0o&feature=channel.
Labor Beat: Healthcare Crisis in the President's Backyard / Nothing About Us Without Us {LB567}
- 1. Healthcare Crisis in the President’s Backyard
On February 10, 2009, Teamsters Local 743 & Students Organizing United with Labor (SOUL) organized a layoff protest rally at the University of Chicago Campus.
The University is planning to layoff over 400 union workers at the UC Medical Center, while continuing multi-million dollar construction projects. Produced by Gary Brooks for Labor Beat.
- 2. Nothing About Us Without Us
Video coverage of the 2/10/09 STOP (Southside Together Organizing for Power) press conference at the Mayor’s Office protesting the proposed closing of four mental health clinics on the Chicago’s South Side.
Statements from Ed Shurna of Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, Mr. Fred Friedman of First Steps, Bill "Dock" Walls of Committee for a Better Chicago, along with several consumers of these clinics there to tell the Mayor, "treatment works."
Labor Beat: The Elder Studs Terkel, Activist for Labor / Public Dollars, Public Schools {LB566}
- The Elder Studs Terkel, Activist for Labor
On Oct. 31, 2008 Studs Terkel died at age 96. The event was somewhat overshadowed by the looming Nov. 4 election just days away. It was Halloween, too, something Studs would have been amused by.
Studs’ passing marked the end to an era. His public radio and writer’s personality had been part of the national narrative in progressive and labor history going back to the 30s.
Labor Beat has compiled here selections from our own exclusive footage of Studs appearing at union picket lines and rallies for the past 20 years. Here is Studs speaking at a grape boycott rally with Cesar Chavez, and testifying with Tim Kazurinsky in the Chicago City Council chambers urging their support for the SAG-AFTRA strike.
We spend some time with Studs as he arrives at a big hotel strike rally on Labor Day in 2003 on Michigan Ave. He enjoys schmoozing the crowd and becomes again the old soap box orator of yore. And in 2007 we see Studs in his dotage, perhaps at his last outdoor labor rally--in Chicago’s Millennium Park for Single Payer Health Care. Studs introduces filmmaker Michael Moore, his new film "Sicko" just released, and Studs and Michael crack a few jokes together. Michael Moore reminds the audience: "Studs, you’re a national treasure."
Narrated by Al Harris Stein.
- Also, a second, short segment. Public Dollars, Public Schools
Well over 500 parents, children and teachers converged on the Chicago School Board protesting the proposed 20 school closings.
Recognizing the Renaissance 2010 plan of the business class’s Commercial Club and its role in the union busting plan and the sabotage of neighborhood schools, they march to their front doors and rally before heading to City Hall to demand a meeting with Mayor Daley.
News Video #090215: Mental Health Clinics Closing Protest, 2/10/2009 {LB}
Nothing About Us Without Us
Video coverage of the 2/10/09 press conference at the Mayor’s Office protesting the proposed closing of four mental health clinics on the Chicago’s South Side.
Statements from Ed Shurna of Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, Mr. Fred Friedman of First Steps, Bill "Dock" Walls of Committee for a Better Chicago, along with several consumers of these clinics there to tell the Mayor, "treatment works."
News Video #090214: Teamsters and Students Protest Hospital Layoffs, 2/10/2009 {LB}
Healthcare Crisis in the President’s Backyard.
On February 10, 2009, Teamsters Local 743 & Students Organizing United with Labor (SOUL) organized a layoff protest rally at the University of Chicago Campus.
The University is planning to layoff over 400 union workers at the UC Medical Center, while continuing a multi-million dollar construction projects. Produced by Gary Brooks for Labor Beat.
News Video #090210: Chicago Antiwar and Immigrant Rights March Permit Upheld {LB}
The Chicago Antiwar and Immigrant Rights Coalition has organized a march through the Pilsen neighborhood on March 14, 2009.
The coalition called this February 10 press conference celebrating the January 23 court victory ruling that the City must grant a permit.
News Video #090208: The Elder Studs Terkel: Activist for Labor {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 20
Labor Beat: The Struggle Against Renaissance 2010 {LB565}
The Struggle Against Renaissance 2010.
Here are excerpts from the Community Hearing at Chicago’s Malcom X College on January 10, 2009, highlighting testimonies of teachers union members, community organizations, students and parents.
The hearing considered: At the current pace, 50% of all the Chicago Public Schools will be privatized by 2020. How will this impact students, parents, teachers, communities? The meeting was Sponsored by: Caucus Of Rank-and-file Educators (CORE); The Chicago Teachers Union; The Pilsen Alliance; PACT; CSDU; Substance News; Blocks Together; Kenwood Oakland Community Organization; Parents United for Responsible Education; Teachers for Social Justice; The Southwest Youth Collaborative.
Selections of speeches from Professor Pauline Lipman, Educational Policy Studies; Julie Woestehoff, Parents United for Responsible Education; Lourdes Guerrero, Teacher Representative; Jesse Sharkey, Social Studies teacher; Lanetta Thomas, High School student; Alina Mojica, former charter school student; Kristen Chapman, High School teacher; Marilyn Stewart, President, Chicago Teachers Union; Meg Sullivan, terminated charter school teacher; Lorenza Ramirez, parent of former charter school student; Carol Reynolds, charter school teacher; Lou Pyster, retired school teacher; Alfred P. Rodgers, Parents United for Responsible Education; and Debbie Lynch, Former President, Chicago Teachers Union.
Lynch, with much audience support, expresses disappointment over President Obama’s appointment of Arne Duncan, responsible for so many of these destructive policies in Chicago public education, to become the new Secretary of Education.
News Video #090202: Closing and Privatizing Chicago Public Schools, 1/28/2009 {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 8:30 News Video #090120: Testimonies Against Schools 'Renaissance 2010', 1/10/2009 {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 29
News Video #090111: Yes, We Can Free Palestine. Rally, 1/09/2009 {LB}
On Friday, January 9, 2009 a huge rally for Gaza assembled in Chicago’s Daley Center and then marched to the Israeli Consulate.
Hear selected speeches and watch footage of this protest, part of a series of actions of growing intensity and size in Chicago.
"Yesterday, the United States Senate voted on a resolution that backs an Israeli attack on Gaza. They are cowards," said one of the speakers.
"We reject our government’s complacency in these crimes, and we hold our government accountable just as we hold Israel accountable, because it is our government which feeds Israel one third of our foreign aid budget while we neglect our youth, our elderly and our disenfranchised communities," another speaker noted.
News Video #090110: Jewish Protester Against Gaza Invasion, 1/09/2009 {LB}
Joel Finkel from Jewish Voice for Peace was escorted away by the Chicago Police from a Pro-Israel rally January 9, 2009 at Federal Plaza. He carried a sign stating "Starving Palestinians is NOT my Judaism."
During the Palestinian rally later that day, Joel weighs in on the scripted Israeli government talking points.
Jewish Voice for Peace, www.chicago.jvp.org
News Video #090104: Confronting the Bigots of the Westboro Baptist "Church", 12/13/2008 {LB}
On December 13, 2008, activists in Chicago’s "Boys Town" neighborhood confronted the notorious bigots from the Kansas Westboro Baptist "Church."
Fred Phelps and his followers have been picketing the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq, saying God hates America for its tolerance of homosexuals. His vile posters often include "Fags Die, God Laughs," and other such hate mongering.
When activists for LGBT Equal Marriage rights heard Phelps would soon protest their community center, they organized to shut down his message of hatred.
News Video #090103: Mass Chicago Rally for Gaza, 1/2/2009 {LB}
On January 2, 2009, some 4,000 supporters of the people of Gaza rallied at Tribune Plaza and then marched across the Michigan Avenue Bridge to hold a protest in front of the Israeli Consulate on East Wacker Drive.
They could not fit everyone into the cleared street on the block in front of the Consulate, so huge was the demonstration. Scenes and speeches.
Labor Beat: The Virden and Mt. Olive Monuments: Honoring Coal Miner History {LB562}
The Oct. 28th, 2006 unveiling of the impressive new monument commemorating the Virden massacre in 1898 in Southern Illinois.
With interviews, coal miner memorabilia, a fire-breathing speech by UMWA President Cecil Roberts, plus the ceremony at the Mother Jones monument only a few miles away in Mt. Olive, Illinois.
Produced by Gary Brooks for Labor Beat, this video won an Honorable Mention Award at the 2007 Hometown Video Awards. Reprise of LB514.
News Video #081222 : Beauty Turner Remembered {LB}
Beauty Turner, A Writer and a Fighter, 1957-2008.
Ms. Beauty Turner, advocate for the people, was felled by a stroke at the age of 51. Short video from the 2007 antiwar demonstration in Federal Plaza gives a message of action. A great loss for the community here in Chicago.
News Video #081214: Protestors Will Hold Obama Accountable, 12/13-14/2008 {LB}
Voices of Protest / December 13-14, 2008 / Chicago.
The antiwar, gay and lesbian, labor, and peace movements all intend to hold the Obama administration accountable in 2009.
News Video #081212: Republic Workers Protest at Bank of America, 12/10/2008 {LB}
Scenes and interviews from the powerful workers’ protest at Bank of America Center in Chicago’s financial district on Dec. 10, 2008. This protest represented a culmination of labor and community support of the members of UE Local 1110 who decided to occupy the Republic Windows and Doors plant because they were being laid off without legal notice or severance.
Interviews and speech excerpts include: Bob Kingsley, National Director of Organization, United Electrical Workers; Ricardo Cacetes, UE 1110 member; Raul Flores, UE 1110 member; Jorge Mujica, Immigrant Rights Leader; Richard Berg, President Teamsters Local 743; Larry Spivak, Regional Director of AFSCME District 31; Rev. Gregory Livingston, RainbowPUSH. 7 minutes.
That evening, Bank of America and other banks agreed to come up with $2 million to cover the union demands. The workers at the occupied plant voted to accept the agreement. The working class has now only scratched the potential power it has to change events.
News Video #081211: The Occupation of Republic Windows and Doors, 12/10/2008 {LB}
When the workers at Republic Windows and Doors were notified their workplace would close in three days, they took matters into their own hands.
The union work force seized control of the factory for 6 days to demand the severance they are by law owed.
On the sixth day of their occupation, they won all their demands, and showed the world’s working class a classic example of people power (something not seen in the USA for decades).
Labor Beat: The Labor Movement After the Bush Era {LB561}
The 2008 election and the prospect of the upcoming exit of the Bush administration created a lot of discussion within the labor movement and among its allies about what is on the horizon for the working class.
In October, 2008 a forum was held in Chicago which represented a current within this debate, and Labor Beat presents a sampling of those speakers.
Here are David Moberg, Senior Editor, In These Times; Richard Berg, President, Teamsters Local 743; and Bill Fletcher, Jr., Past President of Trans Africa Forum and Education Director and Assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO. This forum was organized by In These Times and Chicago Democratic Socialists of America.
Labor Beat: Friends Family Healthcare Victory {LB560}
Three Segments:
- 1. "Friends Family Healthcare Victory" - The IBT 743 workers at Friends Family Healthcare Center have won a victory! Working without a contract since 2002 and not given a raise since 2006, they had enough. Thanks to a recent transformation of Teamsters 743 into a rank-and-file-run union in an election victory last year, the members mobilized themselves and a coalition of community and labor supporters to show management that they were not going to give up or give in. And on October 3rd, FFHC workers and friends celebrated a victory with a new contract.
- 2. "Fighting for Peace at the RNC" - Teamsters Local 743 from Chicago loaded up a bus and drove up to St. Paul, MN to join the big national protest at the Republican National Convention last September. This 9-minute video joins IBT 743 President Richard Berg and 743 members on the trip, listening to their words that explain why they are going. Issues raised in their action include ending the war, health care, union rights, immigrant rights, more
- 3. "Teamster Rally In Support of Anheuser-Busch Workers" - The Teamsters sponsored a labor rally in downtown St. Louis on August 16, 2008 to demand that InBev, the international brewing giant, honor its "pledge to protect the workers and communities" which have made Anheuser-Busch a success. InBev recently bought up Anheuser-Bush, an icon of the "American Dream" closely linked with St. Louis history. The rally also had an international flavor, with labor speakers from Canada, Brazil, and Europe.
News Video #081105: The Labor Movement After the Bush Era, 10/1/2008. {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 28:38
News Video #081001: Capitalism Gives Us The Creeps, 10/30/2008 {LB}
Although Halloween is over, the scariest stuff is yet to come. Join the annual "Capitalism Gives Us the Creeps" Halloween march in Wicker Park in Chicago, presented by local anarchists who dressed up as nightmarish capitalists.
Mins 3:48
News Video #081030: Rally Against AIPAC, 10/27/2008 {LB}
Dick Reilly of Chicago Committee Against War and Racism, comments on Mayor Daley’s appearance at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee luncheon this very day and how the issues of Palestine are front and center to police brutality and war protests.
Mins 3:56
News Video #081029: Burge Is Indicted, 10/27/2008 {LB}
Torture victims of Commander Jon Burge describe treatment they received. Jonathon Jackson of Operation PUSH discusses reconciliation process with Alderman Ed Smith. Family, friends and supporters enter Dirksen Center to finally begin Justice.
Mins 4:12
News Video #081019: Old Wars, New Wars, and Election '08 {LB}
- Old Wars, New Wars, and Election ’08.
Both McCain and Obama are pro-war candidates.
"Some people tell us don’t protest - go register voters. And we tell them, to vote for who?" says Jorge Mujica, immigrant rights leader.
"I firmly believe that Obama...is the greatest threat to the movement for progressive change since JFK," notes Jonathan Hutto, Sr., author of Anti-War Soldier.
"Barack Obama if he wins is going to bring more business to these [war industry] companies. He’s gong to keep in place the major outposts of the occupation to bring money to the contractors," warns Jeremy Scahill, investigative journalist.
- Includes scenes from No War on Iran protest in Chicago.
Labor Beat: The Peace and Justice Caucus at the AFT Convention {LB559}
In July, 2008 the American Federation of Teachers held its convention in Chicago. Present there was a national rank-and-file teachers group, the Peace and Justice Caucus (www.aftpeaceandjusticecaucus.org). Their work at the Convention was to promote resolutions on peace, immigrants rights, support of Puerto Rican teachers, and other issues.
This video explores aspects of their work, as well as issues raised by Chicago rank-and-file teachers concerned with the actions of Chicago Teachers Union President Marilyn Stewart, co-chair of the convention and AFT Vice President.
Stewart had invited Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan, who had eliminated many teachers’ jobs and closed schools, to speak at the convention, while she was trying to fire her CTU Vice President, who had been elected to that position by the membership.
The P&J Caucus also protested that the convention was opened by military student color guard with guns. Scenes and interviews.
News Video #081015: Col. Ann Wright at Sheppard AFB, 10/03/2008 {LB}
Col.(ret)Ann Wright stands in support of Gloria Barrios, mother of Senior Airman Blanca Luna, murdered on Sheppard Air Force Base March 7, 2008. This from a press conference October 3, 2008. She also addresses the violence against women at other bases in the military, stateside and overseas.
Mins 3:16
News Video #081009: Gloria Barrios at Sheppard AFB, 10/03/2008 {LB}
Blanca Luna was murderd on Sheppard Air Force Base on March 7, 2008. Her mother, Gloria Barrios, shows up at the front gates 7 months later looking for answers. She leaves unsatisfied, but first warns youth of making military a way of life.
Mins 6:10
News Video #081002: Don't Sell Out for The Bail Out, 10/01/2008. {LB}
(Send this right away to your "representative" in the U.S. House of Representatives -- On YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLr-AOndq2w&fmt=6.)
On Oct. 1, 2008, labor and community organizations held a protest in front of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago against the rush to bail out Wall Street.
Speakers included: James Thindwa of Chicago Jobs with Justice; Elena Marcheschi of UNITE HERE Chicago/Midwest; and Rev. Gregory Livingston of Rainbow PUSH. Video is 6 minutes.
More info: Chicago Jobs with Justice, Chicago@jwj.org.
" Labor Beat: March on the RNC {LB558}
The protest at the 2008 Republican National Convention (RNC), largely ignored by the big media.
The mass march from the Minnesota State Capitol toward Xcel Center, site of the Republican National Convention.
Scenes from the march, showing the enormous police presence, and speeches, as activists from around the country protest the policies of the Bush administration (and the US Government), amid rising repression against freedom of speech.
News Video #080930: The Peace and Justice Caucus at the AFT Convention, 7/2008. {LB}
(See the description for the later Labor Beat series show.)
Mins 28:21Billiken {LB}
Within: Labor Beat: Billikin / Air and War Show LB}
This segment is described in the show’s description.
Labor Beat: Billikin / Air and War Show {LB557}
-1- First, scenes and interviews from the Bud Billikin 2008 parade in Chicago to remind students that school is about to start. But one Chicago school teacher wonders: where is the Chicago Teachers Union?
-2- The second segment covers the informational protest by anti-war activists at the recent 2008 Air and Water (War) show in Chicago. The police are there to help this costly military advertisement flex its muscles on the beach, while the bill of rights gets sand kicked in its face.
Air and War Show {LB}
Within: Labor Beat: Billikin / Air and War Show LB}
This segment is described in the Labor Beat show’s description.
Labor Beat: Defending Public Education in the USA {LB556}
The Peace and Justice caucus in the American Federation of Teachers held a roundtable discussion on "Fighting Back in the Schools" during the July 2008 AFT Convention in Chicago.
Labor Beat edited excerpts from those presentations, including dramatic footage of student protests, in the face of police repression, against the privatization of the public schools in Detroit and St. Louis.
The message is clear: public education, a long-fought-for gain of the working class over the last century and a half, is targeted for annihilation by corporate America.
The speakers are: Gloria Brandman, Teacher, NYC Public Schools; Steve Conn, teacher, Detroit Public Schools; Jim Hamilton, Missouri AFT; George Schmidt, Chicago, editor of Substance Newspaper; Julie Washington, Elementary Schools Vice President, United Teachers Los Angeles; Pablo Rodriguez, instructor, San Francisco State University.
News Video #080830: Teamsters Rally In Support of Anheuser-Busch Workers, 8/16/2008. {LB}
The Teamsters sponsored a labor rally in downtown St. Louis on August 16, 2008 to demand that InBev, the international brewing giant, honor its "pledge to protect the workers and communitie